Code:DREAM
by Anya Maygo
Summary: This is about a girl whose dreams are visions of the future. Her dreams mainly have people represented as dragons boys are bronze, brown or blue, and the girls are green or gold. She personally is white, and you'll see why. Dreams are Dragonrider spf.
1. Moving Day

**_Moving Day_**

**Note: this chapter is primarily from Karen's point of view. The others will alternate between various characters.

* * *

**

_A white dragon was flying in formation with three more dragons: a large gold, large bronze, and small blue. Each had their own packs of belongings clutched in their claws. They flew far, with the bronze and gold switching lead position every now and again, until they reached a new cave. A large brown landed with other things behind them and they chose to rest before unpacking their things. After a conversation, they unpacked. By nightfall, the white dragon stood in a small cave that was its room. It looked about, wondering if it would ever be able to call this cave "home."_

I opened my eyes with a sigh. I didn't really want my dream to end, but I've had enough dreams like this to know that they always ended with the white dragon falling asleep. Well, actually, a few times the dream was longer, but that had been when my little brother Mark was born, and I was warned of being unable to sleep for it. Boy, was I happy when those dreams ended!

I looked around her empty room as I got dressed in very casual clothes. My stuff was all packed up and in the moving van. I had opted to spend the night in a sleeping bag, for my bed was already with the rest of my stuff. I threw my long white hair over my shoulder. Because my eyes are a snappy green, that hair's a curiosity to all my family, although it does make identifying where I am in my dreams very easy.

A knock sounded on her door. "Karen? Are you up?" It was Mom.

"Yes, Mom. Do I have to brush my hair before we go?"

"Um…it would be nice, but you don't have to. We'll be going nonstop."

Nonstop. Yes, that did fit my dream. I grabbed my bag of things to do in the car and came out. "I know," I said.

Mom's eyebrows went up. She asked, "Did you dream about it, Karen?"

"_Mo_-om," I answered, feeling a little irritated, "I have future dreams every night, why should this one be any different?"

Mom sighed. "I suppose not. Well, I hope you don't mind having cereal for breakfast."

All I did was laugh. However, even I know that my humor was forced. After all, I knew that the day was going to be extremely boring.

* * *

We drove for hours, only stopping for a few minutes, until nightfall when we reached their destination: a two-story house that needed very little fixing up, if any.

"Here we are," Dad called proudly, "our new home."

I cocked my head, looking at the house. It definitely could be the cave in my dreams. That cave had been a hollowed out hill, and I'd had to "fly" to my new room… "Can I have an upstairs room, Dad?"

Dad laughed until Mom reminded him of my dreams in a whisper. Then he said, "I don't see why not, but you haven't even seen the inside yet. Did your dream tell you about that?"

"Naw. I'll still be surprised about that. I only know generally where my room is."

"Well, then you can show the movers where to put your bed and dresser. Just leave your things there for now, because your mom and I have something to tell you."

Well, that got my eyebrows up. My dream did have all the dragons save the blue in the same room talking about something, but words were never conveyed in the dreams. At times like this I wish they were. "O…kay."

Dad laughed. "You're so understanding, sweetheart."

I took my bag and walked in front of the movers who were carrying my furniture. I confess I walked like someone in a trance until I stopped by the room that somehow I just knew was mine. I allowed them in and directed the placement of my bed and dresser, feeling a little like a queen. Once everything was in order, they left.

I dragged my suitcase in front of the dresser and threw my bag onto the bed. Then I went downstairs again to find out what my parents wanted.

They were talking, sitting on the sofa, which had just been brought in, but they stopped as soon as they saw me in the doorway. "Come sit down, Snowflake." Dad patted the sofa next to him.

I made a face – "Snowflake" is not my favorite pet name – and sat on the arm of the sofa. "What is it? And I probably already know, but where's Mark?"

Mom laughed. "He's off trying to choose his room. He wants the biggest room possible."

"As for what is it…" Dad sighed, causing me to cock my head again; the tone was one I don't hear often, the tone of someone resigned to what had to happen.

"Dad? What's going on?" I was starting to get a little nervous.

Mom rescued Dad by answering, "Well, we've decided to send you to a dorm at your new school."

All I could do was sit and stare at my parents. We had barely arrived here and already I was going to be moving again! Finally, I got my voice to work. "A dorm?"

Dad regained confidence and added, "Yes, at Kadic. There will most certainly be comfortable rooms there."

I just looked at him. There was something else that he wasn't telling me. "Dad. What else is it that makes you want to put me in a dorm?"

"Well…there's no easy way to say this. But we – your mother and I – remembered how you had no friends back at our old neighborhood, so we were hoping you would get more friends by having to live amongst your fellow students."

"What?" I felt like panicking, though I knew that they couldn't possibly understand why I had no friends back there. The reason I had no friends at my old home was because I'm terribly shy. If I liked a boy, I can't tell him about it; if I thought a girl's outfit was pretty, I can't tell _her_ about it. And above all, I don't want _any_one to find out about my dreams.

But on the other hand, if I accepted this, then I wouldn't have to worry about Mark anymore. That would be a plus.

"Okay. I accept living in a dorm. Now I know why you didn't want me to unpack right away. I'd better go through my things to see what I want to take with me."

"That's my girl. We will go to Kadic first thing tomorrow morning to enroll you."

I dashed up the stairs again and started going through my stuff. What did I want to bring with me? A dorm wouldn't have much room for a lot of stuff, so I would have to choose carefully. Clothes, shoes, hairbrush, etc., all of those were essentials. As for anything else, things to do in my spare time… I could bring my sheaves of drawing paper, homemade blank flipbooks and colored pencils, definitely. I really liked using those flipbooks to mark out my dreams. Maybe one day I could start a business and sell those little things. After all, I'm an excellent artist – concerning dragons, that is.

I decided to leave it at that. I stood in the middle of my room and looked around. Until summer comes and I have time to really design my room, I would have a very hard time calling this room "home."

I let out a sigh of resignation, got into my PJs, and climbed into bed. Tomorrow would be very stressful unless my dreams say otherwise.


	2. First Day of School

**_First Day of School_**

**Note: here is where another's point of view is introduced. You may recognize the hearkening to the Code: Lyoko episode The Pretender. The other chapters will correspond somehow until I hit and clear Final Round.**

**

* * *

Karen **

_The white dragon flew to a large mountain that was the school. The dragon was led to a large bronze dragon, flamed at by a green-gold dragon, and shown into a cave by a large brown dragon. She stood next to a large dark gold dragon, looking out at a motley assembly of other dragons of all colors (brown, bronze, blue, gold, green). All of those other dragons didn't look extremely friendly, but what else was there to expect? After that class, the white dragon flew out and around the large mountain that was the school with a pinkish-gold dragon which led her to a bronze dragon with extraordinary muscle, a bronze dragon that was thinner than the other, but with a kinder face and unusual rings around his eyes, and a small brown dragon with a strangely shaded patch on his head –_

_Large black birds! Flying down to attack the white dragon, as well as a smaller dark gold dragon and the boy dragons she had met –_

_The white dragon flew on with the pinkish-gold towards the sleeping caverns, with no botheration._

I opened my eyes with a start. Now, _that_ was a strange dream, if I ever had one. One minute, "I" was flying around outside the "school," the next minute, giant birds were assaulting "me" – and both moments were extremely real.

I pulled on my clothes, brushed my hair, and went out of my room. Then I ran back in – I had forgotten my stuff.

"Okay, Karen. Beginning of a new day, take two," I laughed to myself as I walked out the door again. I hate it when I do that: forget something and have to go back to get it, then walk out the door again. Sometimes I have to exit a room three times, can you believe it?

Mom was waiting for me at the door. She tossed me a bag and said, "It's a good idea to just get you there early."

"Whatever happened to saying good morning?" I couldn't resist that one; I was feeling nervous.

Mom laughed. "Good morning, Karen."

We went out and got in the car, to drive off to school. I was predicting very uncomfortable encounters with the students.

* * *

We stopped outside the school, and Mom showed me in to the principal, Mr. Delmas. He didn't look overly friendly, but hopefully, I wouldn't have to cross paths with him more than once.

Mom left, and I was using my own devices to get to my first class. I decided that the best thing to do is find my roommate. Wait – _roommate?_ Having to dorm was bad enough, but _roommate?_ Oh, well. I looked at the paper that Mr. Delmas had given me. There was a number on it, and a name: Aelita Stones. I didn't even look at the number, since I figured all I needed to do was find this girl. Aelita was a very pretty name, though what kind of a last name was "Stones"? I kept walking – I'll admit I was lost in thought – and nearly ran into a girl with black hair.

"Watch it!" That woke me up. This girl didn't sound at all friendly. She must be that green-gold.

"Um, I'm sorry. Uh…wait," for she was starting to walk away. She turned around again, with a very sour look on her face. I hesitated for a minute, then decided to ask anyway: "Do you…know a girl named…Aelita Stones?"

She laughed and told me, kind of nastily, "Even if I _didn't_ know her, she can't be missed: just look for a girl with pink hair! And don't ask me for help again!" Then she stormed off.

Yeah. Harsh words are always shown in my dreams as either smoke or flames, depending on the way they're said. Hold on: pink hair? Who in the world had _pink_ hair? Wait…there _was_ a gold dragon in my dream, a dragon my white spent most of the dream with, who had a kind of strange hue: sort of pinkish-gold. _Her_ first appearance was in _my_ first classroom. Okay, where was my first –

"_What_ are you doing out _here_?" I jumped. That was loud! When I turned around, there was a big man standing there, looking at me.

"Um…nothing. I was just, uh, trying to find my first class. A…Mrs. Hertz class?"

His expression got gentler. Kinda. "Oh, is _that_ all? I'll show you where that is. You new here?"

At my nod, he continued, "Well, you know you can't be escorted all around the school all the time. You'd better learn where your classes are quickly. Here you are." Then he walked away, leaving me to stand there alone by the door. I took a deep breath and walked in.

**Aelita **

I was sitting in Mrs. Hertz's class when I noticed a girl with white hair walk in. Mrs. Hertz noticed her, too. "Oh, there you are." She stood up and brought the girl to the front of the classroom. "Class, this is Karen Shayli. She has just transferred here, so I trust you will all make her feel welcome?"

Karen looked very shy up there all by herself, shy and scared. The only empty seat was next to me, so I stood and pulled it out for her. She did see that: she dashed over as though that chair was a refuge from the world.

"Hello. I know what it's like to be in a new place." I wasn't sure that was exactly the right thing to say to her, but I was trying to make her feel better.

Karen glanced at me and smiled. Then she said, so quietly that I know I was the only person who heard her, "Are you Aelita?" When I nodded, she added, "I'm your…new roommate."

Well. _That_ was something I wasn't expecting to hear. I wasn't sure I liked the arrangement at first; what if she somehow interfered with fighting against X.A.N.A.? Or worse: tried to find out about our secret? Then I took another look at her. She didn't look like the kind of person who would interfere with anything, and she certainly wouldn't try to find out about a secret. And who knew? I might just _tell_ her about Lyoko.

"Okay. I'll show you where our room is, then I'll show you around the school and introduce you to my friends."

On mentioning my friends, I noticed her shrink back a little, as if she was scared. Then she sighed and nodded with a little smile.

* * *

I showed her all around the school, and I did get to introduce her to Ulrich, Odd and Jeremie. I told Odd to go easy on her, since she was obviously scared of something. Then the unthinkable happened: a X.A.N.A. attack! He had possessed a whole flock of crows, and they were attacking students, especially us, with electrified beaks! For some reason, though, Karen didn't look that scared. In fact, she almost looked like she was expecting it!

"Karen, I want you to go find Yumi. She's tall and always wears black. Tell her to come to the factory as soon as she can."

One thing about Karen, she does things without asking questions. She nodded and ran off, almost acting like she was flying. I would have to ask her about that. I ran to the factory to do my part.

* * *

I ran with Ulrich as the desert sector disappeared behind me, and then Jeremie managed to devirtualize us – finally!

I heard Jeremie say, "Return to the past now!" And I wondered when I would be appearing.

**Karen **

I touched my head. I had never felt so strange before. Well, okay…I had felt like that on several occasions, but never like _this!_

Aelita asked, "Are you okay, Karen?" She really did sound like she was concerned.

I answered, "I'm okay. I'll be okay." I knew that that answer didn't match up very well, but I couldn't exactly tell her what was really going on. I noticed, though, that she didn't seem to believe me. Happily for me, she let it slide.

As we returned to our room, I wondered what the giant black birds were about in my dream this morning. Nothing like that had happened today, though it was fun identifying the muscular bronze with Ulrich, the ring-eyed bronze with Jeremie, and the funky-headed brown with Odd. I'm still wondering: what kind of a name is _Odd?_ I got ready for bed, but I wasn't ready to sleep yet. So, I took one of my pictures out of my bag and taped it up on the wall.

"That's very pretty, Karen." I jumped; I had forgotten that Aelita was there. "I'm sorry," she added, sounding embarrassed. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's okay," I said hastily, "I'm always jumpy like that. Yeah, I know," I swapped subjects, "I'm only _really_ good at drawing dragons, though. They just…fly through my dreams somehow." Oh Karen, you had better be more careful in choosing your words…that was _so_ close to spilling the beans.

"I see. I used to have strange dreams too." Aelita looked like she was trying to understand and failing.

I smiled. "Actually, I like to dream about dragons. They're so…majestic when they fly, and they are so brave…unlike me," I added sheepishly. I was sounding dragon-crazy or something.

Aelita smiled back and told me, "You're braver than you know, Karen. Good-night." Then she lay down to sleep.

I stared at her. "Braver than I know?" I repeated quietly. Was I really? Even if that wasn't true, I decided that I liked Aelita. Sure, her last name was kind of strange, but she was quite nice, not like that other girl Sissi. I decided that someday, sooner or later, I would tell Aelita about my dreams, and how they told me what the day would be like.


	3. School Day Alone

**_School Day Alone_**

**Karen**

_The white dragon flew out, and it went off to its first class with the pink-gold dragon. Then they went together to the lunch room, joining up with the kind bronze and the dark gold. Then –_

_The pink-gold dragon was gone! She and the spectacled bronze had left right after they gave a fast report. Where could they be? –_

_The two of them flew back to their cave._

I opened my eyes with a start. Once was bad enough, but did it have to happen _twice_? At least, _this_ one was relatively easy to understand: Aelita and Jeremie were going to stay near me the whole day, or they wouldn't. Either way, I should plan for both.

I glanced over at Aelita's bed as I got dressed. The girl was already gone. Oh well. I knew where the first class was, anyway.

"Okay, I've gotta prove that I'm not totally helpless in this place." I walked off and got halfway to my first class before I finally found Aelita.

"There you are," she said. "I was wondering how long it would take you to wake up."

"Yeah…I sometimes have a little trouble getting out of Dreamland." Oh, Karen. You have gotta quit walking that close to the truth.

Fortunately, all she did was laugh.

* * *

I looked over at Sissi nervously. Why did I have to be partnered with _her_ for the history assignment? Well, I would just have to make the best of the situation, as usual. 

I glanced at Jeremie and Aelita, who were on the other side of the room. Those two looked like they were having so much more fun. Well, that made perfect sense. After all, I think I'm seeing some kind of "thing" between those two. Getting to work together had to be like a dream come true for them.

"Are you going to stop daydreaming and help me?" I sighed and returned to reality. Working with Sissi was _not_ going to be pleasant, but what could I do?

**Aelita **

When Jeremie sounded the alarm, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. I was glad that he already had a plan.

"Odd, Ulrich, get to the factory. Aelita, you and I had better figure out how we're going to finish our report quickly."

* * *

The whole time we gave our extremely fast report, I was glancing nervously at Karen. Would she figure out that something was wrong? 

Well, she noticed _some_thing. But her expression was saying that she was expecting it! I am _definitely_ going to figure out what that was all about.

"May I go to the infirmary, Teacher? I have a headache." Jeremie asked.

Later, I decided.

**Jeremie **

We got to the factory, and then we discovered that William had followed us. I got him working on finding Yumi and we set to work.

* * *

After we devirtualized Aelita, we all cast a vote on whether or not William should join the team. 

"Sorry, William," I said after the votes were read. "One no."

I activated a return to the past.

**Aelita **

It was the previous day, and I was with Karen. I glanced over at her and saw her touch her head with a queer expression on her face.

"Are you okay, Karen?" I just had to ask.

She looked at me and smiled nervously. "Oh, nothing. It's really nothing."

I let it drop. It was just a coincidence that she acted like her head hurt only after a return trip. Right?

* * *

I went off to a meeting in Jeremie's room. Odd was needling Ulrich about that no vote. 

"Don't look at me," he replied. "I may not like the guy, but he may be useful."

Odd looked confused. "But if _you_ didn't vote no, and _I_ didn't vote no, and Jeremie and Aelita both voted yes, that would mean – "

We all knew exactly who had given that no vote: Yumi!

I decided to ask Jeremie something right now. "Jeremie? Would it be terribly bad if I told someone _else_ about our group? Say…Karen Shayli?"

Odd figured it out. "You mean your new roommate? Why do you want to tell _her_?"

I threw all the cards down. "Because twice, I've seen her expecting something to happen. And twice, I've seen her act like her head felt strange right after a return trip. Isn't that just a little _too_ coincidental?"

Jeremie thought about that. Einstein would get this one right.

"I say we wait for a third time before telling her anything. Okay, Aelita?" I nodded. Waiting would be just fine. The third time would tell all. Or at least...

Okay, I would wait until the third time her head hurt after a return trip before telling her. That didn't mean I would wait for the next expect-an-attack look before asking about _that_, though.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Aelita is suspicious! Will Karen tell her about her dreams? 


	4. Crazy Roots

**_Crazy Roots_**

**Karen **

_The white dragon met up with the wing of dragon friends, and they flew together to the big cave for their meal._

_Then they split up, and White flew alone for a short time. Then she heard roars of panic and frustration, and she flew towards the sound. Vines had come alive and were tying up the strong bronze and the small brown! The kind bronze was trying to break them free, and succeeded with the strong bronze, but then he was tied up himself. While Husky flew off, White started trying to help Little Brown. Then vines tied about her and pinned her to the ground!_

_White was dragged away from the two dragon boys, and she clung for dear life at the edge of a crack in the ground. After what seemed like an eternity, the vines just…disappeared. She climbed out and flew slowly back to the school, where she was met by the little brown dragon. They had a conversation, where White was looking more and more nervous._

I opened my eyes slowly this time. That was a crazy dream, and it seemed as though this one was going to make sense. Or as much sense as they ever would. How literal would _this_ dream turn out to be? And why would I be confronted by _Odd_?

"Are you all right, Karen?" I turned. Aelita was there this time.

"Yeah. I'm just a little confused. My dream was very strange." Well, that was something I could tell her. What I couldn't tell her was that I had had increasingly strange dreams since coming to Kadic.

"Well, dreams aren't supposed to make sense anyway. Let's go find Jeremie and the others."

"Sure, why not?"

* * *

Jeremie looked cross. I looked at Ulrich with my eyes wide. 

"Jim found Jeremie's room a mess." He looked annoyed as well.

Odd didn't seem to think there was any problem at all. But Yumi did, and that was a bit strange.

Maybe they had plans for the day, and this messy-room problem was throwing everything off. Oh, well.

**Ulrich **

We had to get the supercomputer fixed if we were going to fight against XANA. At least Karen wasn't acting like she was going to be a problem.

Aelita went off to the factory to see if she could fix it, and Odd and I went for a walk.

"Karen is a very pretty girl, isn't she?" Odd was probably trying to find some safe subject on the school grounds.

"Yeah, but I would take my time in flirting with her. Did you notice how she acted when we all first met her? She was jumpy."

Suddenly, we were both tied up in roots and pulled over!

**Karen **

I was walking around the school, getting extremely bored. Suddenly, I heard a yell from the forest.

All I was thinking about was my dream as I ran in to investigate. When I got there, I couldn't believe my eyes: Odd and Ulrich were bound down by roots, and Jeremie was wielding a shovel for them! I mean, sure I was expecting to see that, with my dream and all, but seeing Jeremie holding a shovel and being aggressive was just…_wrong_!

He cut through the roots holding Ulrich and yelled, "Get to the factory!"

As Ulrich ran, roots came up with a vengeance and tied down Jeremie as well. I decided to try to free a surprised Odd since I was there. Funny that he was surprised about my trying to help him. Yes, that was how I thought about it; I wasn't scared at all.

At least, I wasn't scared until I felt roots twining around my waist and pulling back! I heard Odd shout my name, which in a way was very gratifying. But for the first time since coming there and meeting new people, I experienced extreme terror.

**Jeremie**

I lay there, staring as Karen was dragged out of sight. Incredibly, she didn't scream, even though she was plainly terrified.

Odd looked at me and asked, "_Now_ what are we supposed to do?"

I thought for a minute. But then I noticed that the roots were starting to flicker. "I have an idea!"

* * *

We got free and ran to the factory. But we couldn't reboot the system or deactivate the tower. Then Aelita said that we should destroy the ice sector. 

I didn't want to, but Aelita said that we had no choice. So she entered that fatal code, they devirtualized each other, and I rebooted the system. Simple enough for me.

**Odd **

I looked off to my right. There was Karen, coming back towards the school with a lot of scrapes on her face and she was even limping a little.

"Are you okay, Karen?" I just had to ask.

She looked at me and smiled nervously. "Oh, it's really nothing."

But I was not about to just let that go. "Oh, come on. You were attacked by crazy roots and you are just going to blow it off as _nothing_?"

She definitely looked scared as I went on, "And what's more, you were acting like you _knew_ all that was going to happen! Now I want to know why, like right now!"

Karen stared at me in fear for a minute. I could understand that – I was getting kind of loud. But what she did next surprised me.

She covered one of the scrapes on her face with her hand and mumbled something. It sounded like she said, "So _this_ is what he was going to confront me about."

I had to ask. "You knew that I was going to be getting on your back about something?"

That got her to speak to me again. "Yes…no…I knew that you would want to talk, but not about what."

Then I asked the big question that had grown from a small seed of curiosity in my mind: "How?"

**Aelita **

I was waiting in Jeremie's room for Odd to arrive. We were all there getting ready to talk about our situation with the supercomputer, and Odd was late.

Finally, Odd came in. "Sorry I'm late. I had an unscheduled appointment with the very elusive Fairy of Light. She had to tell me a special secret."

Ulrich looked at Odd in disgust. "Very funny, Odd."

After we talked about what had happened, and Odd sparked our confidence again, Yumi asked, "Odd, did you mean what you said about the light fairy or whatever?"

Odd looked at her with big innocent eyes. "Hmm?"

Suddenly, I figured I knew what was up. "You were talking to Karen, weren't you?"

Odd turned the look at me, but I went on, "What did she tell you?"

Ulrich remarked, "Of all the things I would call Karen, 'fairy of light' is not one of them."

Odd chose to ignore him, and so did the rest of us. Jeremie asked, "Well, Odd? What _did_ she say?"

Odd's answer was a shock to all of us, and we all stayed silent until he finished.

"She told me that she dreams about how her next day will go. She had seen the possessed roots in a dream last night, so she knew it would really happen. However, her dreams have people as dragons, and she can't hear anything except roars and growls, so she is left in the dark about that. She has had these dreams for as long as she can remember, and she doesn't know why she has them."

Suddenly, I remembered something. "When I sent her off to find Yumi, she was acting a little like she was flying! That would be –"

Odd grinned. "All the dragons in her dreams have wings, and she sometimes pretends that she is her dream dragon. She told me what my dragon looked like, and maybe if the rest of you ask her nicely, she'll tell you what yours look like, too."

Ulrich asked, "What did yours look like?"

"It was a svelte brown dragon with an, and I quote, 'funny-colored patch on its head'."

That was when we all laughed at Odd's description of his own dragon and we all went to our own rooms.

I found Karen braiding her hair in my room. "Hey."

Karen looked at me and smiled. "Hey."

It seems like Karen is getting used to me; she didn't seem as jumpy as usual. "Odd told me about your dreams."

"Really?" She didn't sound at all surprised.

"Really. And I was hoping you could tell me two things."

She sat up higher and cocked her head.

"One: what did my dragon look like, and two: could you maybe tell me what your dreams were each morning? I might be able to explain them better." I couldn't very well tell her that I wanted to see if I could spot a XANA attack in her dreams.

Karen grinned and told me, "Sometimes I think I'm the only person who could understand my dreams. But your dragon is pinkish-gold. Otherwise, it doesn't look much different from other dragons in my dreams. And…" she sighed. It was a tired sigh, though. She was probably going to answer me and then go to bed.

"Yes, I'll tell you what my dream is tomorrow. There have been times when I would wish that I could tell someone other than my parents about my dreams."

We both went to bed, and I felt as if I had scored some kind of victory. But I also felt a little worried. Now I had no choice but to tell her about Lyoko. How could I not return the favor of sharing a closely guarded secret?

* * *

**Author's Note: **There is a point back to chapter 2 in this. Did you see that? 

_Interesting. Will Aelita tell Karen the jealously guarded secret of Lyoko?_


	5. Where's Ulrich?

_**Where's Ulrich?**_

**Karen**

_The white dragon had a conversation with the pink-gold, and the two of them went through their classes._

_At the lunch hour, they all met up, and again had a conversation. Then White and Pink-gold walked off talking some more._

_Night came and White lay down in her cave – alone. Then Pink-gold came back with her head hanging, the very picture of a dragon in mourning._

I looked up at the ceiling. If my dream was anything to go by, today was going to mostly be boring. Though, what was the tragedy going to be?

"So what was your dream?" I hopped up and looked at the other bed. Aelita was sitting up looking at me.

"It was just us talking together, going through classes, the whole shebang. We hooked up with your other friends in the lunch room, and Odd took a lot of your food, so I had given you mine and went off to get more myself. Then there was more talking, mostly between you and me again, and…" I sighed. "The end had me in the draconic version of this room. Alone. Well, okay, you came back, but you looked sad."

"I wonder what I'm going to be sad about." Aelita looked thoughtful.

"Yeah, that sort of thing always leaves me wondering."

**Aelita**

I looked at Karen. She looked like she was going to tell me something. "What's up?"

Karen answered, "I'm just glad we're friends. I haven't been able to tell anyone about my dreams, because I was afraid that they'd laugh. Since coming here, not telling anyone was actually easy, because it seemed as if no one really wanted me to be in their group or team. I was actually happy when Odd confronted me."

That hurt. See, I had yet to tell her about the one big secret that kept her from really being a part of our group: the secret of Lyoko. How long could I go without telling her?

* * *

We went off to our first class, and Jeremie whispered to me, "I have figured out something about Sector Five. Over the lunch period, we need to get rid of Karen so that I can explain it."

I nodded, but I wished that Jeremie could have phrased that a little better. I mean, "get rid of Karen?" Why couldn't we just tell her?

* * *

We all sat down for lunch. Ulrich asked, "So…what does my dragon look like, Karen?" He was probably trying to make for conversation until we could – sigh – ditch her. 

Karen became all smiles, and she answered, "Well, like I told Aelita last night, her dragon is a pink-gold. You and Jeremie, Ulrich, are both bronzes."

She almost continued, but Yumi asked, "What's the difference between bronze and brown? I don't see it."

Karen told her, "Bronzes are generally larger, and they make for better leaders."

While Ulrich grinned at Odd, she went on, "Jeremie's bronze is smaller than Ulrich's, but it has a kinder face, and...rings around its eyes." Jeremie laughed and self-consciously straightened his glasses. "Yours, Yumi," Yumi straightened, "is a fairly dark gold, and for some reason it's smaller than Ulrich's dragon. Don't ask; that's just the way it is."

Yumi shrugged; then she looked at Odd and yelled, "Odd! Can't you get enough to eat?"

I looked down in surprise. Odd had finished off the food on my tray!

Karen laughed and said, "Here, Aelita. I didn't eat any of my food. I'll go and explain to Rosa. For some reason, she likes me." And she tossed her hair over her shoulder, gave me her tray, and walked off.

Jeremie watched her leave, then told us, "I have figured out how to get you virtualized directly into Sector Five. Unfortunately, in order to know if it works, I'm gonna need a…"

Odd filled in for him. "Guinea pig?"

"Right! Any volunteers?"

Nobody spoke. Not even me. Jeremie had tried to experiment before, and they didn't always turn out well.

Then Odd held up four string beans in his hand. "Short string bean is it."

We each took one, and I sighed in relief as I looked at mine. It was pretty long.

Ulrich looked at his hand and the inch-long string bean in it. "I guess today's not my day."

Jeremie told him, "We're gonna go to the factory tonight."

Ulrich gave his soda can to Odd. "Here, Odd. You can have my cherry soda if this doesn't work."

Odd started acting silly. "Really? Gee, Ulrich, I couldn't possibly take it. Here, Yumi. You are a better candidate to own something from the first person to make it into Sector Five without passing Go." And he gave the can to Yumi…just as Karen sat down at the table again.

We stared at her in worry. Would she figure out that there was a secret?

Karen said, sounding impressed, "That must be some video game!"

I could tell by her face that she was wondering why we all laughed.

**Karen**

We left the lunch room and I asked, "_Were_ you talking about a video game?"

Aelita answered slowly, "Actually, its's more like a computer game. There is…a world in danger from a…dark spirit named XANA, and only a few warriors can stop him."

"Oh. And I guess there are five levels, all of them looking different? I mean, one is a forest, one a desert, et cetera, et cetera?"

"Yes! Exactly like that! And before you can play this game, you need to create your own character, and decide its stats. Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and I all have characters in this game. Jeremie is more like a game master; he tells us when monsters are coming, so that we can destroy them."

"Wow. I have got to try this game someday!"

Aelita looked worried. Was it something I said?

"Relax, Aelita. I _said some_day."

Her expression didn't change any. Oh, well. Maybe their game had a limit of four players; most video games did. Yeah, that was probably it.

So why did Aelita still look so worried?

**Jeremie**

We went to the factory that night to try out my new program.

"Are you sure about this, Jeremie?" Ulrich was probably a little nervous. Understandable, considering what has happened on other experiments of mine.

"Positive! Well, about nintey-eight percent."

I typed in the code to send Ulrich into Sector Five. "Virtualization!"

Then we all knew something was wrong. Ulrich no longer showed up on my screen!

**Karen**

_The white dragon and the pink-gold dragon met up with Little Brown, and all of them went into the kind bronze's cavelet. He was working on something at the other side. White stepped forward into the center of the cave and suddenly straightened as her scales took on a bronze shade! Then she started talking to the others urgently and Kind Bronze acted as if he had just had an idea. Seconds later, the bronze tinge vanished, and White shook her head woozily._

_Then the rest of the day passed normally for White, though the other dragon-friends disappeared for some time, and they returned with Hunky Bronze at mid-evening._

I opened my eyes. That was interesting. Why would Ulrich be coming back to the school with them at that time, when he wasn't with them when they left?

"What was your dream this time?"

I looked at Aelita. She had been crying when she came in last night, and she didn't look as if she had fully recovered.

"I saw us going to visit Jeremie. I'm wondering…is there something wrong with that game you mentioned yesterday? It seems to mean a lot to you all, and if something happened…"

Aelita thought for a minute. "Well…what did you hear us talking about at lunch yesterday?"

That took a minute of recall. "Um…Odd said something about going to Sector Five without passing Go."

Aelita nodded. "Well, last night we tried it with Ulrich's character, and now we can't find it anywhere in the game! Jeremie's still looking for it, though."

"Ulrich must be really upset about it. Let's go see what Einstein's found."

We both went off to Jeremie's room.

**Aelita **

We met up with Odd outside Jeremie's room. Odd looked at me with a weird look on his face.

"Karen wants to know if Jeremie has had any luck finding Ulrich's_computer game character._"

Odd looked confused for a minute, but then he brightened up and replied, "Oh, I get it! Let's see if he's had any luck." And he pushed open the door for us girls.

I asked, "Have you had any luck, Jeremie?"

He answered, "Not yet, but I'm still looking. I just can't see how he could have disappeared into thin air!"

Karen walked towards him, adding, "Or into cyberspace, as the case may –"

She never finished. Karen got into the center of the room and just…stiffened.

I decided to ignore her and suggested, "Maybe something went wrong with the virtualization program." I was expecting her to ask me what part of the "computer game" _that_ was.

But the voice that answered me wasn't Karen's! "Looks more like a big system bug to me."

Odd and I were both looking around in shock. Then Karen turned around with a big grin. "Surprise!"

Odd asked, "What kind of system bug do you mean?"

Then I realized something: I knew that voice! "Ulrich? How can you be in Karen?"

He answered, "I guess I entered Karen's body by accident. It's thanks to her that I'm talking to you; otherwise I was like some kind of disembodied ghost!" Then he looked at Karen's hair with a strange-for-Karen look on his face and added, "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to comment on this hair of hers, though."

While Odd laughed, Jeremie snapped his fingers. "I figured out what went wrong! Somehow during the virtualization, Ulrich's mind was separated from his body!"

I asked, "Is that why you couldn't find him?"

"Yes! Because it's not Ulrich in Lyoko at all – it's his inanimate body, his corporal envelope, which doesn't give off the same signal."

Ulrich turned around again and asked, "Think you can put me back together?"

"In theory, since there is no school, I'll have time to do it. Now that I know what I'm looking for, I can put a lock on your body. Once I do that, it shouldn't be any problem putting you in it."

"Great, and how long will that take?"

"I hope I can get it done before this afternoon."

"That's great! That will give me time to think about my future!"

Odd asked, "What do you mean?"

Ulrich looked back at Odd and me. Then suddenly, with the correct voice groaning, the girl started shaking her head.

Odd asked hesitantly, "Uh…Ulrich? Are you still there?"

Karen said, sounding a little cranky, "So that was what my dream meant. I'll be spending the rest of the day trying to get _that_, though."

**Karen**

At lunch time, Aelita asked me, "Karen, is it okay if I go with Jeremie for the afternoon?"

"Depends. Is it about Ulrich's character?"

"Yes. But the only way to get it back is for someone else to play the game, and we might not be able to get Yumi."

"Oookay. I guess I can survive until you come back with Ulrich."

Aelita gave me a strange look, but dropped the subject anyway. I guess I forgot to tell her that part of my dream. Ah well.

* * *

I had to go through two flamings by Sissi before the students in question got back. I wondered just what secret they were keeping from me. I mean, if this thing was a computer game, why did Ulrich disappear? And now here he was, returning as if nothing had happened. I would have to ask Aelita. 

Tomorrow.


	6. Odd Times Three

_**Odd Times Three!?**_

**Karen**

_The white dragon went in to the lunch room to suddenly see – in sequence of each other – three brown dragons that looked exactly the same! The dragon just happened to be the one with the funny patch on its head._

_The wing of dragons without Little Brown dashed off, and then smoke came billowing through, turning any dragon it touched into stone, including one of the Little Browns. It touched over White -_

_Lunch went by, without anything different happening, and only one Little Brown._

I looked up at the ceiling. _Why_ did I have to have another funky-time dream? And what was with the triple-Odd thing?

"So what was your dream?" I hopped up and looked at the other bed. Aelita was sitting up looking at me.

"It was another crazy time dream," I sighed. "For some bizarre reason, there was three of Odd's dragon."

"What? I wonder what that's all about." Aelita looked startled, to say the least.

"I agree. But the craziest stuff in my screwy time dreams never happen, so maybe there won't be any big deal."

**Aelita **

I wasn't so sure that there was no big deal. Maybe it would have something to do with a XANA attack. Though of course I didn't say that.

* * *

At the breakfast table, Jeremie told an unhappy Odd that he had a new ability for Odd to test out: Teleportation. We would go to the factory in order to test it out. Odd was thrilled, but I wasn't sure that this ability would work. I mean, Karen's dream made me wonder. 

In Lyoko, my suspicions were confirmed: the program had a bug that created clones of Odd! Now we had to figure out how to hide the three of them.

"I think Karen's going to wind up seeing all of you, so I wouldn't worry too much about hiding from her. But please, try not to get into trouble!"

**Jeremie **

I stayed at the factory, trying to figure out just what went wrong with the program, while everyone else went back to school. I could just imagine the chaos that could ensue while there were three identical boys running around the school.

A couple of hours later, it seemed, I found the problem and immediately called Odd. Or, well, one of them.

"Odd, the problem is that none of you are entirely whole right now – basically, you've been split into three parts, and it's very unstable. Eventually, all three of you are gong to vanish altogether! You have to find your clones and get them to the factory now! Once you're here, I'm going to virtualize all of you to Lyoko. Now that I've fixed your program, I should be able to put you three back together."

"Uh, how am I supposed to find them all? I lost track of them at school!"

"Well, where would _you_ go if you suddenly found out that you had no school?"

**Karen **

I was watching Jim showing us how to throw a discus, when suddenly, this strange cloud of purple-gray smoke billowed in, and when it touched Jim he turned to stone, looking almost exactly like one of those Greek statues. It didn't take me long to figure out where this was in my dream. I started trying to outrun the smoke when I suddenly saw something that made me stop dead in my tracks: one Odd turning to stone, and another Odd sliding down on a fire hose in order to get the first, and craning my head up, I saw a third Odd holding onto the hose. I guess I stayed in one place too long, because I suddenly felt myself stiffening…

**Aelita **

I waited anxiously for them. Surely they would get to the factory in time. Finally, Odd dashed in to destroy all the monsters that were preventing me from getting at the tower, and I ran in.

"Tower deactivated." I watched the data fall to the bottom of the tower in relief. Then I heard Jeremie's voice say very welcome words:

"Return to the past now."

* * *

I found myself with Karen. She immediately lifted her hand up to her head. 

"Headache?" I asked. I couldn't think of any other way to ask her what she felt.

"Um, actually, I always feel like this when I have a screwy time dream. I don't know why."

"Um…" I knew I had to tell her now; she noticed the return trip this time, and I didn't know when I would get another chance. "I know why you react this way. First of all, the computer game you asked me about?..."

**Karen **

I sat through Aelita's explanation in stunned silence. The computer game was actually a computer world? And XANA was a virus trying to destroy the earth? The computer game characters were virtualized kids that Aelita and I both knew? The headaches and weird dreams were caused by return trips? And she told me before that it was a computer game?!

Well, come on, Karen. Aelita didn't _tell_ you that, you _assumed_ that. There's a difference.

"And you're telling me all this because..."

"Because you already told me your secret. I couldn't very well keep this one from you. You're my friend. What more could I do?"

I smiled. I figured I knew what she felt like for the past couple of weeks, trying to keep the secret from me and not wanting to.

"Um…are you going to tell Jeremie?"

"Maybe not quite yet. I will, though."

I grinned almost as big as Odd does. "And do you want to bet that when you do, he'll have a litter of kittens?"

That sent both of us into hysterics. It sounded like Aelita was laughing with relief as well. I guess she figured out that she was forgiven for holding back for so long.

And she truly was. There was nothing that would change that.


	7. Double Trouble

_**Double Trouble**_

**Karen **

_The white dragon flew back and forth across the schoolgrounds, looking for her friends. Then she saw the spectacled bronze – no. It wasn't the spectacled bronze; it was similar, but three shades darker. Anyway, it zapped the small brown! Then it flew off. White followed after him as he went to a large building and went down to a large room. White placed herself above on a beam, while he set himself up at the computer in the middle._

_She waited, and saw her friends: Small Brown, Dark Gold, and Pink-Gold appear, and then continue down into a room below. Then a little later, the real Spectacled Bronze appeared with the strong bronze and they all started fighting. Then White fell from her post on top of the fake spectacled-bronze and got zapped herself for her pains. Soon after that, though, it disappeared. Then her friends got into a smoky discussion._

_Later, Dark Gold was talking to a bronze that was not as large as the principal, but larger and slightly darker than even Strong-Bronze. Whatever they were discussing, they agreed on it, for they shook claws with grins._

I looked up at the ceiling. Okay, _that_ one was fairly easy to understand. I was going to get involved in something with Lyoko. But why would her friends start blowing smoke?

"So what was the dream this time?" I turned and looked at Aelita.

"Uh…I think that Xana's going to try something. Can he make duplicates of other people?"

"Polymorphic clones? Yes. Who did he duplicate?"

"Uh…Jeremie."

**Aelita **

That got me worried. _Jeremie_ would be the one copied? This could lead to trouble.

Later, I got a call from Jeremie, and he said that there was a clone running around of himself. Actually, _I _said that.

"Karen dreamed about it?" He didn't sound surprised.

"Yes, she did. I think I'm the only one who really understood it."

I hated lying to him this way, but I knew he wouldn't like it that I told her without asking first.

**Jeremie**

I waited at the lab for the others to get there. Yumi called, telling me that she found Odd near the principal's office, groggy but otherwise okay. I was just about to think that everything was okay when I heard a disturbingly familiar voice behind me.

"You are more clever than I gave you credit for. It's an honor to use your appearance. But you are still going to have to die." Then I was grabbed and thrown down the elevator shaft!

Just before I went too far down to really see anything, I thought I saw a girl with white hair up on one of the ceiling bars. _Karen?_

**Karen **

I was happy that I managed to get up there without being noticed, though I think I was nearly caught three times. I waited until I saw and heard Yumi, Odd, and Aelita check in with the fake Jeremie. Odd sounded very suspicious about this Jeremie, though. The girls were both certain that this was the real guy.

* * *

I stayed up there until I saw Ulrich and Jeremie – the real Jeremie – come in to try to stop Xana. I already knew I was slipping, but I decided to hold on until my target was right underneath me. Finally, the moment presented itself to me. And that was when I dropped. 

Direct hit! I braced myself for the electricity that was sure to come. I wasn't disappointed. As I lay down there in pain, I heard Jeremie frantically saying something about bringing Aelita, Yumi, and Odd back. Suddenly, I knew why the dragons in my dreams were blowing smoke at each other: Aelita _still_ hadn't told them that she had told me!

**Aelita **

We all met up in the lab. Jeremie was extremely mad – to say the least. "You told Karen?!"

"You had _said_ that if she reacted to one more return trip I could tell her!"

"I meant for you to let me know if she reacted, so that _I_ could tell her!"

Karen suddenly spoke up. "That was yesterday, right around lunch time. I can keep a secret, but I don't know how well I can fight."

Yumi suggested, "Maybe we can ask William."

That was so unexpected from her that we all just stared at her.

"What? I changed my mind!"

**Karen **

I watched as Yumi explained to William about Lyoko. Oh, _William_ was the dragon that Yumi had been talking to.

"So, what are you going to do about me?" I couldn't help it. I just had to know that.

Jeremie considered. "Uh…I'll probably just virtualize you. We _do_ need more warriors. I know you said you can't fight, but…your dragon can, right? That would work."

Personally, I thought that was assuming a lot, but at least I would get involved directly. And across from us, William and Yumi shook hands, smiling at each other.

Odd calmly stated, "So now we'll have _two_ new warriors."


	8. Karen's First Virtualization

**_Karen's First Virtualization_**

**Karen **

_The white dragon strode out to the large room in the school. There was an obstacle course set up in the center. Small Brown was up right then, and he was doing the best. She waited for her turn and suddenly, Strong-Bronze reacted like someone was calling him, tried to leave, and was confronted with a larger bronze dragon who seemed to be upset with him. He stopped by a gold dragon who was darker than Yumi, and said something in an urgent tone. She wondered what was up. Then…_Karen! Get to the factory as quick as you can! Xana's attacking the core of Lyoko through William!

_She reacted, and then chose to stay for Odd's round of the finals. She went through one round and lost, then rushed of to the cave. She entered a large crevice and…blue. Just…blue. No sign of anything happening, it was like she blacked out!_

_She opened her eyes again. She was lying outside the crevice! But…what had happened? Later, the group was inside a musty old cave, where other dragons once lived, though that time was long past. They were probably discussing what to do now._

I snapped my eyes open. Whoa. _Two_ things that have never happened before! One, I _actually understood_ something in my dream, and two…what happened in Lyoko?

"Is something wrong, Karen?"

I looked at Aelita, who was just…looking back at me.

"Um…I'd prefer to tell _everyone_ about this dream." And, I added to myself, I wasn't telling about William. I just don't know how he would take that. Maybe I _will_ tell Aelita…later.

**Ulrich **

We were all gathered in Jeremie's room. I thought back to last night. That had progressed fairly well, bringing William and Karen into the team at the same time. But what _was_ Karen's dream about after being scanned?

Odd piped up from Jeremie's bed. "So what's our schedule for today, Karen?"

Karen hesitated. "Well…Odd? You, Ulrich and I are going to be in the…I think it was the gym. I mean, the skateboard competition?"

Odd looked at me. "You're coming with me? Thanks!"

I decided to insult him a little. "Well, someone's gotta pick you up and dust you off every time you face-plant. I mean, what are friends for?"

That got Karen and Aelita to laugh a little. _Finally_, Snow-hair's starting to relax around us.

William looked at Yumi. "Why are we asking her this?" Whoops. We forgot to brief William about Karen's dreams.

Yumi filled him in while Jeremie asked, "So what else?"

Karen said slowly, "Um…Xana's going to launch a direct attack on Sector Five again, and, uh…I think Aelita tries to contact Ulrich, but…"

"You don't have a clue how to explain this part, do you?" I was getting frustrated with her constant stopping. "And where _are_ Jeremie and Aelita in all this? Where's Yumi and William, for that matter."

"Not in the gym, _that's_ for certain! My dreams only show what's going on around _me_, remember?"

That caught me a little off-guard. I didn't think she could actually _get_ mad at someone!

William laughed. I think it was my expression. "So what happened to Ulrich that he couldn't get to Jeremie?"

Karen said calmly, "He was stopped by the principal and another adult bronze dragon."

I thought. Who would rate a bronze in Karen's dream? "Uh…Jim?"

"_Ul_rich. Jim's a brown. _This_ guy's married."

I didn't know what to make of that. "O…kay. So what happened after that?"

"You stopped by a gold dragon and left a message. I think it was for Odd."

Yumi suddenly interrupted. "Hold on. Who was the gold? You just said that I wasn't there!"

Karen sighed. "You're not. _This_ gold's darker than you. She's almost a bronze in shade!"

Odd asked, "Did I get the message?"

"Uh…no. She didn't relay the message. You were called later, and you had to run off. I got a call of my own, but I knew that something would be suspected if _both_ of us disappeared, so I took Odd's place."

Odd suddenly started acting kind of goofy. "Thanks, Karen. You're really sweet."

Karen rewarded him by throwing a pillow.

I smirked at her. "Direct hit!"

Karen glared at me. "Don't even _think_ of trying to make up!" But she was grinning, so she didn't mean it. Which was a good thing, because I wasn't even sure when I got her mad anymore.

"I lost a round, and then ran off to help. And, um…I guess that's it." Liar. There was something else that she didn't want to tell us.

Aelita noticed that, too. "Karen. What happens in Lyoko?"

Karen stared at Aelita. She looked almost scared. "Aelita, I _don't know_."

**Jeremie**

I sat down in my room with Aelita. This would be so nerve-wracking, knowing that there was going to be some difficulty in dealing with a Xana attack.

"What now, Jeremie?"

"We just wait, I guess." Suddenly, a knock came at my door. I opened it, and there were Milly and Tamiya!

"Don't tell me you forgot about the interview we were going to do on the smartest kid at Kadic!"

Um…I _had_ forgotten! "Aelita, could you - "

"Okay, Jeremie." She ran off to the factory, and I turned back towards the two news girls.

**Aelita**

As I rushed off to the factory to find the attack on the core, something suddenly occurred to me. How did Karen know what the attack was going to be? She doesn't normally recognize an attack unless it happened outside Lyoko. Well, I would just have to ask about it later.

I got to the factory and called Ulrich, then Yumi. Ulrich said he would get here quickly, and Yumi told me she would try to sneak out when her brother wasn't looking. Well, that left just two people to call. I called William, even though I had a bad feeling about this.

William got here quickly enough. I wasn't sure I wanted to virtualize without Jeremie, so I called to make sure that was what we should do.

It was. I decided to call Karen, just to make sure.

"Um…you remember that I was going to virtualize last?"

"Yes. I just wanted to let you know what was happening."

"Is William with you?"

"Uh-huh."

I heard a sigh on the other end of the line. "Karen? Is there something you're not telling me?"

She hesitated. "No."

That didn't make me feel any better.

**Odd **

I had gotten all the way into the finals when I got a call from Jeremie. "Odd! You've got to get to the factory!"

"Aw, come on, Einstein! I'm in the finals!"

"Sam didn't tell you?"

That was something. "Tell me what?"

* * *

As Sam came over to me, I asked, "Sam, why didn't you tell me Ulrich's message? It was important!" 

"It was? I'm sorry. I didn't know."

I hated to break this to her, but I knew I had to. "Sam, there's something really important I have to do right now."

She looked very hurt. "Even more important than hanging out with me?"

"Unfortunately, yes." I looked at Karen.

She nodded. "I'll take your place, Odd. Although…I won't guarantee that I'd last very long."

I ran off to help my friends.

**Karen **

I rushed up to use the half-pipe whatever. Though, I think there were two reasons that I didn't win. One was – obviously – that I had lost the _first_ round of this competition, and _Odd's_ level was out of my league. The other reason, though, was that I just couldn't get that phone call of Jeremie's out of my head. "Karen! Get to the factory as quick as you can! Xana's attacking the core of Lyoko through William!"

As soon as I was told that I was out for good, I walked out of the gym. The door closed behind me, and I ran. I ran all the way to the factory.

* * *

As the elevator doors opened on the scanner room, I shuddered. What fate was waiting for me in Lyoko? I stepped into the open scanner and turned around. Jeremie's voice echoed through my head. 

"Transfer Karen. Scanner Karen. Virtualization!" There was a lot of light and wind and then…

I was falling? "_OW!_" That landing hurt. Somehow I had ended up on my back – I have this crazy tendency to lean backwards when I'm falling.

I struggled to sit up. My back felt very heavy, and that was making it tough. Finally, I got myself sitting. And I couldn't stop staring at my hands.

No. Not hands: _claws_.

I looked over my shoulder in surprise at the scaled white wings there and asked, "Jeremie? What's happened to me?" My voice sounded strange in my own ears. Maybe…I tapped against my teeth with a finger.

Bingo: I had fangs.

"Um…the virtualization process reads someone's subconscious desires, so I guess the dragon thing came from your dreams. Now hurry up! You have to stop William!"

I struggled up to my feet and ran. I ran to the elevator thing and got all the way up to the big dome.

"I can't bring you any vehicle, Karen. Sorry, you'll have to manage on your own."

I looked over my shoulder again and grinned. "Who needs a vehicle?" And with that, I tipped off the edge of the path. A simple thought got my wings flapping, though I wasn't impressed with my own flying technique: I probably looked like a dying duck or something!

"The entrance to the core is at the south pole of the dome. Be careful."

So I started down. Then I saw it: a door that was opening and closing almost like some kind of mouth.

Oh, _man_. I have _so_ much trouble with this kind of game! Okay, girl; timing…timing…

I lunged through the doors, and I think it nearly got my tail. Uh…_was_ my tail still there? I looked over my shoulder. Yeah, it was. Looking up, I saw a bright explosion, and then everything stopped. I flew higher and saw a glowing sphere. I also saw a whole bunch of monsters staring at the sphere – but they weren't attacking. Then I saw William. It couldn't have been anyone else. I lunged before it occurred to me that I had no idea what my weapons were. Oh, well. I _did_ have claws, after all.

Suddenly, lasers were firing at me from all directions! I started doing the craziest maneuvers trying to avoid getting hit. One of my wild swings sent a fireball rocketing at one of the monsters and destroyed it! I tried that again at a different one and instead got an ice ball! Not that that didn't _work_.

* * *

Somehow, I managed to destroy all the monsters in the room! I _still_ say that it was sheer dumb luck. Then I felt like I had to land. 

Easier said than done. I crashed on the floor. As I struggled to get onto my feet again, I heard footsteps. Looking up, I saw William coming towards me with that big sword thing of his upraised.

Huh. He probably thought he would stab me from behind. Ah, well; let him try. I bounded to his left and went right past him, discovering that I could move just as well on all fours. Then I felt something hit my back and heard something – I can't say for sure if that was William, because it didn't _sound_ like him. But it _did_ sound like frustration. I stood up and turned around. There was William, looking irritated. The way his sword was positioned, he had tried to slash me.

"Dragons have _armor scales_, Xana. Nothing can penetrate them."

Then…I guess I stood still too long, because he ran me through.

I toppled out of the scanner, clutching my chest. That one hurt – _bad_.

* * *

Later, we met up in what Jeremie called the Hermitage. So _this_ was the old cave that was in my dreams. 

"Karen, what do you think happened?" Ulrich asked. Personally, I was wondering why he was asking _me_.

"I'm afraid I just don't know. Maybe I just stopped at the wrong time or something. But I think that if we managed to get Lyoko back somehow, I would like to practice flying."

Aelita was very upset. That actually made a great deal of sense to me. I'd be upset too if my father was gone, then there was a chance of getting him back, and suddenly that chance was gone.

Jeremie suddenly yelled, "I don't believe it!" He was fussing with his laptop as usual.

"What's up, Einstein?" Odd asked.

"I've found a fragment of Franz Hopper's DNA!"


	9. Changing the Rules

_**Changing the Rules**_

**Karen **

_The day passed almost exactly as it had up until after lunchtime. Then while White and her friends were lounging in the sun, trying to ignore two small dragons and Sassy Green…a bronze dragon that was darker, but familiar, walked over! He didn't act any differently from his usual behavior, so they all went off to class._

_That night, Pink-Gold and White were just relaxing in their cave when Sassy Green and the two small girl-dragons came in. White was just about to flame SG when William came in and shooed them out. Pink-Gold started to thank him, but then was cut off…_

_White ended up following the bronze all the way to the linked set of caves that was the factory, but couldn't do anything else. She called Kind Bronze, and waited for him to come. He did…just in time to send Small Brown in to rescue Aelita._

I opened my eyes with a start. This was going to be very bad. "Aelita? We have to tell Jeremie about my dream right away."

"Huh?" I couldn't blame her for being confused.

"To put it bluntly, William's coming back."

**Aelita **

You know, yesterday when Jeremie brought back Sector Five, I thought nothing would be nearly as astonishing. Now, sitting outside on a bench with my friends, listening to Karen, I learned that I was wrong.

"Yeah, William comes walking over to send Sissi and the two news girls researching squirrels or something. But…he seems…darker. I don't know, kind of like when I was standing in the middle of Jeremie's room and suddenly my white dragon's scales went bronze."

Ulrich suddenly just told her what had happened. "That was me possessing you to talk to the others. Is Xana going to possess William?"

Odd yelled, "Well, Xana's not going to catch us off guard!"

Karen sighed. "I said _like_ that time. I didn't say it _was_ what will happen." Maybe later she would explain to me why she was hanging from a tree branch.

Then we heard Sissi. "Oh, Jeremie, Ulrich, I was hoping to ask you a few questions."

Karen then made – to my mind – the best statement of the day. "Last I checked, Sissi, none of these people like you."

Sissi was about to yell at her for that when we heard William. "That's right, so beat it!" And there he was, just standing there.

* * *

"I remember being captured by the Scyphozoa, but after that, nothing. It's just a blank." 

Karen was giving him this extremely suspicious look. And personally, I couldn't blame her.

Odd walked over to him and poked his side. All William did was turn and ask him what the big deal was.

Ulrich told him, "We've been fooled by polymorphic clones before, William. We have to make sure."

William laughed and messed up Odd's hair. "Nope! It's just me!"

Yumi told him while Odd fixed his hair, "Well, we'd better hurry if we're going to get to class. You're just in time, William: there's a math quiz today."

William made a face. "Talk about timing! I forgot to study!"

Yumi laughed. "Since when have you _ever_ studied?" We ran all the way to class laughing.

**Karen **

Aelita and I were in our room settling down for the night. Then the door opened. "Hello, Aelita, Karen. We were wondering if we could ask you a few questions." Sissi. Sheesh.

"Aren't the bedrooms off-limits for interviews?" I didn't know that for certain. I just wanted her to leave.

Then another voice came through. "Come on, girls. Shoo. These two will need their rest."

"All right, all right. We're leaving." Milly, Tamiya and Sissi all left, and William shut the door. Shut the door…while staying on our side.

And that was when I started getting tense. Aelita didn't actually notice. "Thank you, William. Becoming a prisoner of Sissi is almost as bad as…"

"Becoming a prisoner of Xana?" He looked right at Aelita, but I could hear a subtle change in his voice. "Is _that_ what you were going to say?" He extended his hand towards her…

I grabbed the chair from in front of the desk and brought it down on William's head. As he fell, I grabbed Aelita and ran, dragging her out the door.

Aelita gasped, "Is this part of the script?" Probably asking if that was in my dream.

I hissed, trying to find a safe place, "I demand a rewrite. You're _not_ getting kidnapped."

**Jeremie **

Sissi had just told me that William had visited Aelita and Karen in their room. When I got there, both girls were gone, and William wasn't there either. The chair was tipped over, though. Suddenly, my cell phone went off. "Hello?"

"Jeremie? This is Karen. Xana _has_ possessed William…and he tried to…kidnap Aelita. We're trying to keep…our distance…but it's hard!" She was running, and she still managed to send off a warning? Karen is a valuable team member.

"I'll try to get help to you. Where are you at?"

"We just got into the sewers. I'll try to head him off."

Then she hung up. I was wondering why she sounded so scared.

* * *

I got Ulrich and Yumi together and ran to the sewers. I couldn't reach Odd for some reason. The three of us found Aelita, and she looked terrified. "William has Karen!" 

Ulrich yelled, "What?"

"He's taking her to Lyoko!"

Yumi asked, "But why would he do that?"

I thought for a minute. "We need to get to the factory. The answer won't come quickly right here."

* * *

I got to the supercomputer and slipped on the earpiece. "Aelita, you had better stay here unless we really need your help. Xana was trying to get you in the first place." 

I virtualized Ulrich and Yumi and watched as suddenly Karen broke away from William. "Karen? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I play dumb to try to keep William from taking Aelita here, and then he captures me instead! Couldn't be better!" It's not like Karen to be sarcastic.

"Well, try to avoid being caught again. I'll try to get you out of there."

I wasn't sure I could get her out of there very quickly, though. Then William devirtualized both Ulrich and Yumi and started after Karen again. "Careful, Karen! You have a follower!"

"Not for long! I'm taking flight!"

I watched as Karen flew straight to the Celestial Dome. William was staying right behind her.

Finally, I heard Odd come in. "Where were you?!"

"Taking disco lessons from Jim!"

Huh. Now he's making jokes. "Whatever. Get down to the scanner room, Karen needs your help!"

**Odd**

I dropped in and ran. "So where is she?"

"She got to the Celestial Dome before William caught her again. Now he's taking her out of Sector Five on a Manta."

"Um…what's out there?"

"Nothing but…the Digital Sea. He's gonna drop her in!"

"Give me the Overboard! I'll help her!" I hopped onto it and raced out after them. There they were: William riding a Manta with…wow! Was that dragon-girl _Karen?_

I fired a Laser Arrow at the Manta; not trying to destroy it, just sting it. The thing bucked and Karen fell off. At what seemed like the last second, she spread her wings and swooped back up to me.

"Thanks, Odd, but I don't want to come here ever again!" She landed on the back of my Overboard and I turned for home.

She looked over her shoulder and warned, "He's following us!"

I turned in place, pointed my arm over her shoulder and fired. That shot managed to destroy the Manta, leaving William flying on his sword. "I hate tailgaters," I joked, and flew back.

**Karen**

I was the only person watching as William stretched out on his sword and dove into the Digital Sea. "Is he gone?"

Jeremie answered me. "No. He's just returned to his new master."

As I stepped out of the scanner, I protested, "I am never going to Lyoko ever again!"

Odd asked innocently, "Why? Just because you were kidnapped doesn't mean you can't be a good fighter. Besides, you look great in there!"

I sighed. I probably could become a great fighter if I bothered to continue going. Besides, William couldn't send me into the Digital Sea unless he was dragging me in; I _had_ wings, after all.

"Hey, was that why you were so scared? Because you still couldn't see what's happening in Lyoko?"

"Odd. Lyoko didn't even appear in my dream. That was me, keeping Aelita from meeting the same fate as I nearly did."

Odd laughed. "So what does that mean? That you changed the script?"

I had to smile. "That's it. I am not going to strictly follow anything in my dreams anymore: I'll change the rules. Next time, though," and my smile turned into a grin, "I'm going to change the rules in such a way as to avoid anyone getting kidnapped." We left the scanner room laughing.


	10. Dragon Sight

**_Dragon Sight_**

**Karen**

_Karen walked down the hall, considering how best to help defend the new internet submarine, codenamed Melanie, when Jeremie and Aelita were both stuck on detention. She already knew that Xana was going to attack it, but how would she save it?_

_Yumi virtualized Ulrich and Odd, while Karen sat back and watched. Then finally, Yumi called her little brother and asked for assistance. After the call was made, Jeremie and Aelita came to the factory and she, Yumi and Aelita all stepped into the scanners and…blue._

_Later, they were all sitting at the Hermitage, talking about what the submarine's name could be. Then Aelita came up with the perfect name._

I opened my eyes and sighed. Well, I knew what was going to happen, but ever since those two – or was it three? – return trips, I have been seeing human beings in my dreams, and when I was awake, well…

"What's the matter, Karen? You look like you just learned that Jeremie and I were caught together last night."

I looked at Aelita and grinned. Or rather, I looked at her bed. Now all I saw of her was a pinkish-gold dragon, as I had seen for three days straight. By now, I had mostly gotten used to it. "Caught. In the _same room_? Oooh, you're both busted, aren't you?"

Aelita sighed. "I guess that's not the reason you sighed."

I stopped smiling. "I'm sorry, Aelita. I shouldn't be laughing, especially since this _is_ an extreme problem. There's going to be an attack on our new little computer project today, and Yumi will have to virtualize the boys on her own."

"Oh. But what about you?"

"If I had to guess, I'd say I hadn't wanted to trust Yumi to virtualize me properly. And before you ask, I have no idea how you and Jeremie get away from detention."

Thinking about the assumed reason for why Jeremie and Aelita would both be in the same room led me to think about last night. Ulrich and Yumi had both fallen asleep against the wall of the factory, and they were leaning on each other. At least, I think that's what they were doing – my dragon sight had them curled around each other; it was really sweet watching them. Yumi woke up first, and she jerked away as soon as Ulrich made some sign of waking up. I'll have to ask her about that someday. But not today; she was going to be stressed enough as the day is now.

**Aelita **

Detention? That wasn't good, especially if there was going to be an attack by Xana.

"Well…just tell everyone else about that dream, and maybe we'll come up with something."

Karen's fast, all right. She immediately came up with a suggestion. "Um…you and Jeremie _do_ get away from Jim, thanks to a phone call that Yumi makes. You don't have to worry about that. Maybe Odd, Ulrich, Yumi and I could all go down to the factory right after lunch to get ahead of the game!"

"I like that idea! And that way Yumi can get instructions from Jeremie so that she feels more confident in virtualizing the boys."

* * *

Jeremie seemed much calmer after I told him what Karen had said. He even seemed all right with getting detention – which confused Principal Delmas and Jim. Oh, well. Being calm about something bad is an extremely good thing, Karen says.

**Yumi**

We all walked calmly to the factory after lunch. I was so glad that Karen had that idea to get ahead of the game; now we wouldn't be panicking and trying to get there last-minute.

And I also had the instructions for virtualizing the boys. Karen was going to wait until Jeremie and Aelita got back.

* * *

I punched in the coordinates. "Transfer Ulrich; transfer Odd. Scanner Ulrich; scanner Odd. Virtualization." 

I heard Odd on the other side. "Two arms, two legs, one head, one tail, yeah, everything's accounted for."

Karen laughed behind me. "Odd just doesn't trust you, does he?"

I ignored her. "Get to Melanie, you guys."

* * *

I could hear the battle through the earphone. Then suddenly Karen asked, "Odd's been devirtualized, hasn't he?" 

I sighed. "Yes. _Now_ what do I do?"

Karen walked over to me and answered, "You call Hiroki and ask him to spring Jeremie and Aelita."

That startled me. "How did you know my little brother's name?"

"_Yu_mi. Just call, okay?"

I sighed again. I probably already knew the answer to that. So I made the call through the supercomputer.

Hiroki told me that he would help…_if_ I did all his homework for a month.

"You're a real crook, Hiroki, but okay." I looked at Karen. "We'll be seeing them pretty quickly."

* * *

Jeremie and Aelita showed up in pretty good time, and Jeremie ordered us girls to the scanners. Karen looked worried, but her dreams can't see into Lyoko, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. 

When we got there, Ulrich was already gone. William was ready to make the final blow to our poor submarine. I launched a fan and set him off-balance; then Karen threw an ice ball and actually froze his sword! I didn't know that her attack would do that! Then Aelita formed the biggest energy field yet and whipped him!

"Nice work, girls. Now you can all come back."

Karen answered, "Good thing. I'm not entirely sure I _like_ virtualizing."

**Odd **

We were all at the Hermitage, just sitting around. Karen looked a little bummed, but I think she was only bummed because her dream went exactly as planned this time.

Meanwhile… "What do you _mean_: we can't call the sub Melanie?" I didn't know what to think.

Ulrich told me the problem. "Odd, Melanie's the perfect name for a _girl_, not for a submarine."

Aelita came back into the room, holding a book. "This might have some ideas."

Jeremie read the page that Aelita showed him as she explained about whatever he was looking at. Then he actually read the name: "Skidbladnir?"

I missed the name. "Huh?" Okay, I did hear it, but I couldn't figure out how I was supposed to pronounce that. "Um…how about 'Skid' for short?"

Yumi asked, "What about Jim? Were you put on detention again?"

Aelita smiled brightly – a good look for her. "I haven't seen him since we left. I think he forgot all about it."

That got Karen to laugh, at least. Come to think of it, that got all of us laughing.


	11. First Plunge

_**First Plunge**_

**Karen **

_Karen watched in almost horror as Jeremie attempted and failed to scale the rock wall in gym class. At lunch time, Sissi threw an insult and Aelita made a brilliant comeback._

_All the other warriors suggested to Jeremie that they test out the Skid, and he reluctantly agrees. The principal mentions the fire safety drill and they take advantage of that to go to the factory. Then…blue._

_Later, they were conversing in the lab. Something about the digital sea and another sphere._

I opened my eyes and sighed. (I seem to be starting a lot of mornings that way lately, don't I?)

"So what's on our schedule for today?" Aelita looked as half-interested, half-dreading as a dragon could get. The dragons I see can show emotion far better than humans can. For example, I look at Ulrich, who I know from before my dragon sight came up is very stony-faced and emotionless, and I can tell that he's in love with Yumi and afraid of me. Big laugh, huh? What's there to be scared of from _me?_

But anyway… "Rock climbing in gym class. Jeremie is going to fall off the wall, and Sissi will insult him at lunch time. Better start thinking of a good comeback now."

Aelita was very obviously confused. "But won't _Odd_ do that?"

"He'll…have his mouth full. You know how he is about that."

Aelita laughed. "Okay, okay. A good retort for Sissi about rock-climbing… What did she say?"

"Um…something about Jeremie having trouble lifting his brain."

**Aelita **

Well, _that_ got a laugh out of me. "I have it. You'll hear the comment at lunch."

Karen grinned big.

Then it occurred to me. "Karen, what else is happening?"

She sighed again. "Well…we have a fire safety drill today, and the gang's going to take advantage of that to go to the factory and test out the Skid. Oh, and Jeremie's going to be against the idea."

Actually, that wasn't a big surprise. He doesn't want to risk any of us on a half-finished experiment.

**

* * *

Jeremie **

After falling off the rock-climbing wall, I wasn't in too great a mood. My mood got worse when Sissi decided to pick on me.

"Are you having trouble lifting your brain?"

I looked at Odd. He would have a good comeback. "Odd?"

Odd looked at Aelita. "Aelita, do you mind? I don't like talking with my mouth full."

Aelita made the best comeback I had ever heard. "Sissi, your head's so full of helium you could just float to the top!"

As we all laughed, Herb said to Sissi, "You know, sometimes I think you ask for it."

That made Karen laugh even _harder_.

When those two walked away, our conversation shifted to the Skid. And Odd suggested we take it for a test run.

"Odd, the Skid isn't fully tested yet. We can't just fly it out and expect it to work smoothly."

Aelita suddenly piped up. "Well, how are we to really know if it works if we don't try it out?"

I looked around the table. The entire original gang was set on going for a joyride in the Skid. Then I looked at Karen. "What do you think, Karen?"

"Um…" She looked hesitant. "You know that my dreams don't reveal what happens in Lyoko, right?"

I nodded, not entirely sure where this was going.

"Well, I don't know what's going to happen on this test run, but we're going to find something of critical importance. We should just, um…let this little adventure run its course."

The principal was announcing the Fire Safety and Prevention drill. I sighed.

"All right; we'll use the fire drill to get to the factory."

Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita all cheered. Karen still looked worried, and I could understand why – kind of. She couldn't see what was happening in Lyoko, and _she_would be virtualizing, too.

**Ulrich **

We materialized in Sector Five. "Okay, Jeremie, where do we go?"

"Just take the elevator up to the Skid."

We ran onto the elevator, and it took us up. As we went, I took a glance at Karen. I just don't see her on Lyoko very often, and she takes some getting used to. I mean, she's got _fangs!_ Okay, okay, I'm a little nervous of her.

When we saw the Skid, I felt a little awestruck. So, apparently, did the rest of us. Yumi gasped, and Aelita called it beautiful.

"All right, people, get onto the transporters."

I looked down and ahead. There were five circles on the floor in a kind of cross. We each stepped onto one, with Aelita in the middle.

Odd asked, "So, um…who'll be driving?"

Aelita smiled. "_I_ am, of course!"

Jeremie said, "Energize!" and we all…were transported into different places on the Skid.

Aelita's voice came over the comm. "_**Skid to Nav-Skids, are you reading me?**_"

Yumi answered, "_**Loud and clear, Aelita**._"

I agreed, "Loud and clear, Aelita."

Odd broke the system with "_**Hey, me too**!_"

Karen sounded a little spacey. "_**Uh…yeah, I read you…Jeremie, what happened to my wings**?_"

"Um, they…went offline when you entered the Skid."

"_**Oh. That makes perfect sense**._"

It made sense to me, too. Obviously, she couldn't use her wings while in the Skid; the _Skid_ would be flying. I wonder what that would look like. Maybe sometime I'll ask her. Maybe.

* * *

Aelita piloted the Skid out into the sky. So far, everything was working perfectly. Then Jeremie called. "Okay, the test was a success. You can come back now." 

Odd wasn't happy, and to tell the truth, neither was I. "_**Aw, come on! Couldn't we explore the Digital Sea first**?_"

Aelita agreed, "_**Odd's right, Jeremie. It's not much of a test just sitting in the sky of Lyoko. We should find out if it can take the big plunge**._"

Jeremie sighed. He didn't sound at all thrilled. "All right, five minutes."

Aelita asked us, "_**Ready to go, everyone**?_"

I answered, "Ready."

Yumi chorused, "_**Ready**._"

Odd broke the system again. "_**Whenever you are, Princess**._"

Karen's voice shook. "_**Ready as I'll ever be…I guess**._"

We plunged in.

**Karen **

I was terrified. Really. There was no way that I _couldn't_ be terrified in this place. But once Aelita got us out into the Digital Sea, I was amazed; there was so much space! Oh, wow, that just _totally_ rhymed.

Aelita gave Jeremie visuals, and for a long time, all we could do was stare out into the glorious shimmering…I don't know what to call it.

Then Jeremie called. "Okay, Skid, time to come back."

Odd moaned about it, saying something along the line of it not being nearly long enough. Jeremie laughed about it. "I _said_ five minutes, Odd."

Then things started happening. According to Aelita, the Skid's navigation system was down! And without the navigation system, there was no way to get back to Lyoko.

Jeremie ran off to get his decoding CD, and we just…cruised some more.

* * *

After a time, the blue light all around us shifted to red, and up ahead, I saw a large sphere, like Lyoko. Everyone else was positive that we made it back all by ourselves. 

Then Aelita voiced what I was thinking: "But it's _not_ Lyoko!"

Everyone voiced their confusion, and Aelita repeated, with more certainty, "It's not Lyoko." Then she slammed on the brakes and turned around.

Soon after that, we noticed some fish things. I loved Ulrich's crack: "Hey check it out, it's Ugly and Uglier."

Almost right after that, they started shooting at us, and Aelita had to go into evasive maneuvering. Some very _extreme_ evasive maneuvering.

Odd yelled after a barrel roll, "Careful, Aelita, or you'll get us all killed! Who taught you how to pilot?"

Aelita answered sweetly, "_You_ did, Odd."

Then we heard Jeremie's voice around us. "Okay, I'm back. What's going on?"

Aelita gave him the briefing, and he told her, "You're using too much power. Separate the Nav-Skids from the Skid. And the rest of you: keep those things away from the Skid, so that I can fix the program."

We all gave acknowledgements (yeah, I've got an extensive vocabulary), and then I felt a shudder. I grabbed hold of the controls in almost-panic, and zoomed out.

"Now remember, the Nav-Skids have limited life points, so try not to get hit!"

I remember Odd whooping as he piloted his little pod, so he was probably enjoying himself to the max. I saw Yumi try to destroy one, but nothing happened. I heard Ulrich let off a quip about "Looking for some more bait?" One chased after him, but the other suddenly looked at me.

It lunged, firing off its lasers, and I made the pod flip over them – and the eel thing. Then I saw _it_.

_It_ wasn't very big; just this round spot on its tail. And on it was the Eye of Xana: the weak point of any monster created by that virus.

I didn't think; I just pulled the trigger, watching the missiles anxiously. To tell the truth, I was aiming too far to the spot's left. If it wasn't moving forward, I'd miss the dot completely.

It was still moving forward.

Missiles made impact, and the eel-thing writhed in agony and exploded, while _I_ made a very swift getaway.

Around then, Jeremie called, saying that we needed to get back to the Skid. I and two others flew to our designated spots and latched on. Before I had enough time to get worried, the last one flew in to its place.

I guessed it was Ulrich and commented, "Took you long enough."

"Hey, I had to get that eel freak off my back."

Aelita engaged the thrusters, and we were _outta there!_

* * *

We started talking in the lab about the sphere. Obviously – according to Jeremie – this sphere was a new world created by the data stolen from Aelita's memory. 

Yumi – or maybe it was someone else, I was pretty tired by the time this little comment was made – suggested that maybe we could explore it.

Jeremie answered, "Maybe. But right now, all _I'm_ interested in exploring is my bed. I'm beat."

Odd quipped, "If _you're_ tired from just sitting in your comfy chair, imagine how **we** must feel!"

Jeremie calmly told him, "Odd, if I told you what I was doing while you were on the network, you'd never believe me."

Odd guessed, playing psychic, "You did a little rock-climbing on the dormitory roof."

Jeremie was very obviously surprised, if his dragon was anything to go by. "What? How'd you know about _that_?"

Everyone else was just…shocked. I knew this would happen, so I was the only calm one. Then they all started laughing.

Odd crowed, "Gee, Einstein, you can be extremely funny when you want to be, or even if you don't want to be!"

When they all calmed down, Ulrich suddenly said, "Hey, right before we left the battle scene, I noticed that there was only one fish behind us. Where'd the other one go?"

Odd suggested, "Maybe it left to get reinforcements."

I shook my head. "No. It didn't get away." I left it at that.

That was all I had to do. All any of them could do was stare at me. Then Yumi got it. "You actually _destroyed_ one of those things?! How did you pull _that_ off?"

I smiled and answered, "If I _told_ you, it'd spoil the surprise for _next_ time."

Odd started begging me to tell him how I did it. And let me tell you, the sight of his dragon crawling around on the floor groveling with his wings dragging was quite enough to make me laugh.


	12. Crash Course

_**Crash Course**_

**Karen **

_Karen sat in the factory listening to Jeremie lecturing her and her friends on the purposes of the supercomputer. Finally, Ulrich asked if they could actually do something on the computer and Jeremie agreed. Ulrich tried out first, by virtualizing Odd. That was a success, but then a tower activated. A specter materialized in the lab and knocked Jeremie out, leaving them to worry about Lyoko. Yumi ran off to find Aelita, who was also in danger, and Ulrich was left with only Karen to help him out. He found the timed virtualization program and rushed off to help Odd. Karen took over at the computer and held down the fort until Yumi and Aelita arrived. Yumi told Karen and Aelita to get to the scanners and…brown?_

_Later, Jeremie admitted that he trusted them a little, and Aelita told them that she was going to be gone all day the next day for a dress rehearsal._

I woke up feeling…weird. I looked at my alarm clock and – well, no wonder! It was five in the morning, a whole hour before I needed to wake up! I took advantage of that time to write down the lecture that Jeremie gave. Now, I knew perfectly well that my hands were normal, but seeing that paper being held down by a dragon's claw was rather unnerving. I could handle it; I can handle seeing a dragon's claw holding a piece of paper. However, if my imagined supernails punch holes in the paper, _then_ I'll start getting worried. Now I had a new question in mind: what would I do for an hour; and what would I do during the lecture? I _had_ to be there, or technically, it wouldn't happen. (How confusing.) Hmmm…I could always confront Yumi. She really cares about Ulrich, as in loves, if her dragon form was anything to go by. But she goes to a whole lot of trouble to put him off. I have to know why. She's going to be bored during this lecture; that much I'm certain of. So, I'll just put the question to her during that.

That still left what I was going to do for an hour.

* * *

We all were sitting in the lab, getting bored by Jeremie's lecture. Aelita wasn't there; she was auditioning for a techno thing. I flipped through his notes briefly; they were all over the place! I was very happy that I had taken notes of my own, because they were much more organized than his. 

I looked over at Odd, who was sitting on my left. He was asleep, and wouldn't bother Yumi or me.

I leaned over to Yumi and whispered, "Yumi, can I ask you something? I'm new to your team, so I'm not sure about everything."

Yumi – obviously looking for a break – answered in an equal volume, "Sure. What?"

I asked, "What is it between you and Ulrich?"

Yumi blushed a little. "Oh. Um…we're just friends."

I snorted softly.

Yumi immediately took offense. She stood up and started raising her voice. "It's the _truth_! Why won't you _believe_ me?"

Ulrich had noticed. Oh, well. I stood up also. "Believe you? Why should _I_ believe you? You don't even believe _yourself_!"

Right about then, Jeremie saw fit to interrupt. "Are you girls paying attention at all?"

Yumi looked embarrassed. "Uh…"

I glared at him and answered, "No."

Ulrich snorted. At least someone thought it was funny. Then he asked, "Jeremie, couldn't we just start doing something practical now? We don't need to know _everything_ you know; just a few of the basics, like virtualizing someone onto Lyoko."

Jeremie sighed. "Oh, all right. We can start doing some practical stuff now."

Odd lifted his head sleepily and asked, "Are we there yet?"

What in the world was he dreaming about?

* * *

Jeremie got Odd going down into the scanner, and Ulrich was sitting at the computer. I was so glad that it was Odd who was trying out as another person's guinea pig instead of me. Ulrich did it…but Odd did his best to unnerve him right after, and Jeremie scolded Ulrich about how he should be glad that this wasn't a Xana attack, or he wouldn't have gotten off so easy. 

Too soon, Jeremie; a tower activated. Then a specter came down and took on the form of – to me – a large black dragon. It lunged at Jeremie and…okay, okay, this is probably not what really happened, but _I_ saw the black dragon latch its teeth into Jeremie-dragon's neck and throw him across the room with a lightning shock. Then it faded away into the ceiling.

Ulrich and Yumi looked at me in worry. I shrugged.

Ulrich calmly stated, "Obviously, this time Xana's going to try to get rid of everyone who can run the supercomputer."

Yumi gasped and rushed off. Ulrich yelled, "Hey, Yumi! What do you expect me to do?"

"Oh, you'll think of something." The elevator door closed.

Odd yelled something about Bloks from the computer.

Ulrich sighed. "Now what?"

I held out my notes. "My papers are much more organized than Jeremie's. You can use them to materialize the Overboard, and Odd can go to the Mountain Sector using the Way Tower."

Ulrich took them and scanned through. "Okay, I can handle this." He punched some keys and…

Well, the next thing I remember was that Odd yelled, "_Ul_rich! You're supposed to give it to _me_, not to _them!_"

I couldn't help but laugh; Ulrich had materialized the Overboard behind the Bloks.

Watching the screen, I could tell that Odd was successful in destroying all the Bloks and getting his ride. Ulrich tried to get a window showing where the Way Tower was and instead got a window with a countdown on it. "Oh, great. What did I do?"

I decided to just tell him this part of my dream. "That's the timed virtualization. I think it's to the Mountain Sector."

Ulrich looked at me, grinned, and got out of the chair. "You take control, Karen. I have a great idea."

He rode down the elevator, leaving me wondering what his "great idea" was.

* * *

I sat there, punching random keys to help Odd, when finally Yumi showed up with Aelita. Aelita got Odd headed the right direction, and then told me, "All right, Karen; virtualize me and Yumi." 

I shook my head. "No. Yumi should virtualize both of us. That's the way my dream went."

Yumi took the chair and we both got into the scanners.

"Transfer Aelita; transfer Karen. Scanner Aelita; scanner Karen. Virtualization."

I dropped in, as did Aelita. Oh, that's why my glow-sight was brown: that's the Mountain Sector's color! I should remember that.

Aelita decided to tap Ulrich on the shoulder. The boy nearly devirtualized her right then!

"Hi! What's on the menu?"

Ulrich returned the humor. "The usual: Xana's sent us the entire seafood platter, and William's the lemon."

Odd cruised up on the Overboard and made a quip about how many towers he had to go through.

Then we heard a scream from above. Ulrich told Odd, "Shoot me."

Odd shook his head. "No, I should be the one going back. I've lost a lot of life points already; you still have all yours. Besides, this is what we did in the swimming pool attack."

Ulrich got ticked. "I told you never to bring that up!" And he destroyed Odd with both swords!

I just had to ask. "Um…wasn't that a little…extreme?"

Ulrich shrugged. "Maybe a little, I guess."

I decided to start making the strategy. "You two take on the monsters. William's mine this time." And with that, I took wing and started over.

While they were fighting, I was circling the activated tower, preparing myself for a sneak attack. I spun down, threw a fire ball at William's back and flew up again. I actually landed on top of the tower to watch what was going to happen. The fireball was gone when I looked, so he must have parried the thing. William started approaching Aelita, who looked very scared, when a fan spun out of nowhere and slashed his hand.

Oh, yeah! Go Yumi!

Um…I had decided to watch Ulrich for a little bit, so I'm not sure what happened to Yumi. But when I looked back, Yumi was disappearing! I got so mad that I just launched myself from the top of the tower, throwing an ice ball and a fire ball simultaneously. I actually hit his sword with the ice ball, and the fire ball walloped his other arm. He staggered at the blow, and I landed, feeling kind of cocky. "You took advantage of me in our first battle, but that's not going to happen this time!"

William looked up at me…and spoke! "Are you sure about that, Karen?"

I stood like a deer in the headlights. William could still _talk_?!

By the time it registered, William's now-unfrozen sword was coming down at my chest.

* * *

The scanner opened, and I fell out snarling at myself. Then I heard frantic sounds from the floor above. Odd was in trouble! 

I forced myself to get into the elevator and went up. Yes, indeed: Odd was being held by the neck – by our old friend the black dragon. He was also holding a power cable in his other claw, with its end sparking just inches away from Odd's face. I grabbed another one and swung it at the black dragon. It noticed, but not soon enough to stop me. I got it zapped, and ran over to Odd.

I didn't quite make it when I felt claws – hands? – grab my neck and heave me across the room. Oh, he's got a faster recovery rate now. Brilliant.

I was just winding up for another attempt when the dragon just…stopped. Then he faded into the ceiling.

I sighed in relief, crawled over to the supercomputer, and punched in the numbers required to bring Aelita and Ulrich back to Earth. Then I went to check on Jeremie.

* * *

We all sat in the rec room, talking about today's happenings. Jeremie was fine, and…well, as a human, he wouldn't have seemed very happy. His dragon was preening, very proud about its students doing so well on their first day. 

Aelita told us that her…techno thing…was what was picked for the Subsonics band, and that tomorrow was a dress rehearsal.

I told the others, feeling kind of down, "I really didn't know that William could still talk while possessed by Xana. I swear I'll never let him take me by surprise like that again!"

Aelita tried to comfort me. "It was because of you that I managed to get to the tower."

Ulrich added, "And you wore him down so that _I_ could destroy him."

I wasn't in the mood to be comforted, but Odd had other ideas. "Oh, come on! What are you complaining about? You're Karen, with the coolest warrior key on Lyoko! Karen, who on her first time managed to destroy all the monsters before _they_ could destroy the Core of Lyoko! Karen, who destroyed a Kongre on the Skid's first voyage! You've got it made, Snow-Hair!"

I punched his shoulder. "I don't need to be called that here too, thank you very much." But I was grinning, so I didn't really have much behind that punch.

Then Ulrich asked me something that I was actually partially expecting. "What were you and Yumi talking about during Jeremie's lecture?"

Yumi answered first, blushing. "Nothing."

I just looked at him.

Yumi asked me, shocked, "You're not actually going to _tell_ him, are you?"

I shook my head, but the look on my face didn't change. Aelita would be able to tell you what that look is: my How-Much-Should-I-Tell-Him? Look.

Finally, I told him the truth: "You."

The look on his dragon's face was priceless.


	13. Partial Answers

_**Partial Answers**_

**Karen **

_The entire gang stood in Odd and Ulrich's room, looking at Odd, still asleep. He woke up for a minute, saw that they were ready for P.E., and asked Aelita to cover for him with an excuse. She tried, but Jim threw his back out during the class and had to go to the infirmary. There, he discovered that Odd hadn't been up that day and both Odd and Aelita got detention. The two of them were mad at each other all the way until time to explore the new world. They went to the scanners and…blue._

_Later, Odd and Aelita made up their fight._

I opened my eyes. Now, here was something to avoid at all costs: Odd and Aelita in a fight. I leaped out of bed, pulled on my P.E. uniform, and shook Aelita awake to get Odd up.

* * *

We all stood in Odd's room. By my sight, Odd was a dragon that wasn't about to move. He did…kind of. "Why are you all dressed like that?" 

Ulrich didn't directly answer. "Take your time. It'll come to you."

Odd closed his eyes for a second or two. Then his eyes snapped open in dismay. "Oh, no: P.E.!" Then he rolled over so that his back was to us. "Aelita, make some excuse so that I can sleep longer."

Aelita asked, "What do I tell him?"

Odd was asleep again.

I told her, "If you have to say anything, say that he needed to go to the infirmary. You all go on ahead. I'm going to try one last shot at getting him up."

They all walked out. Ulrich hesitated at the door. "Just don't hurt him too badly, okay? He may be a dork, but we need every fighter against Xana."

I rolled my eyes as the door shut. Then I stalked over to the sleeping brown dragon and heaved him up by the neck.

As he stared at me in bleary-eyed horror, I snarled, "Would you like to know the sequence of events for the day if you stay in bed? Aelita's going to use the infirmary excuse, Jim will throw his back out by accident and learn you were never at the infirmary, and you both are going to get detention and be mad at each other up to when we go to Lyoko. Do you _really_ want that?"

Odd made some kind of strangled noise and I continued, "I didn't think so. Now get out of bed and get dressed before I treat you like a baby doll."

Odd stared. Then he pulled at my hand enough to gasp out, "You wouldn't…would you?"

"Try me. Just try me."

"I surrender. Let me go and get out of my room."

I dropped him and turned away. But I saw before I actually left: he rubbed his neck with a scowl on his dragon face.

I closed the door and stared at my hands. Did I scratch him? Are my hands becoming dragon claws for real? No, that can't be it. Maybe my nails need trimming. Yeah.

I ran off to get to P.E. The only thing making me happy was that I wasn't flying.

Yet.

**Odd **

I sat up and rubbed my neck. That girl really needed to trim her fingernails. I rushed through getting dressed and took off out the door – only to run straight into Jim! And…oh, no, the principal was with him!

* * *

Okay, okay, we weren't actually mad at each other after getting detention; Aelita might have been mad at me, but I was madder at myself. 

Aelita arranged to meet up with Nikolas, _Nikolas_ after lunch – probably to get me jealous, but it didn't work – and then Jeremie told us at lunch how we were going to explore the computer world that we found. I couldn't help but grin at how Aelita had to tell Nikolas that she couldn't show up.

**Aelita **

I still couldn't believe that Odd would get in trouble even after Karen told him…something. Once we got to Lyoko and beamed into the Skid, I started it up and we set off for the Replika.

Once we got there, I agreed with Odd about not being paired with each other, but Ulrich, Yumi, and Karen all went off without us! We chose to sit with our backs to each other until monsters showed up. Then I had to save Odd when William knocked him over the edge of the sector.

* * *

Thankfully, the others showed up before anything happened to me. Then Jeremie told us that Herve and Nikolas were in the factory looking for Odd and me. Odd called down with an idea. Ulrich devirtualized me and I listened to Odd's plan.

* * *

I didn't like it, but it was the only way to get those two off our backs. We got into the elevator and got it going up. Once it reached the level that those two boys were on, it opened. We were pretending to kiss. After they left, we went back down to Jeremie and kind of got a laugh at his expense.

**Karen **

I sat in my room, with Aelita sitting across from me. I was worried.

"Don't worry, Karen. Odd and I have a plan to keep Sissi from using our game against us."

I looked up sharply. "Hm? Oh, sorry, Aelita. I was thinking about…something else."

Then my cell phone went off, making both of us jump. I swiped it off my desk and flipped it open.

It was my mom. "How are you doing, Karen?"

"Um…not so well. I mean, school's fine and I've made several friends, but…"

"I've been thinking about telling you this for some time, but I kept putting it off, mostly because I wasn't sure you were ready."

I thought about that. Did that mean that Mom was finally going to tell me? "Go on."

"Well, my husband and I used to live in this town. I was rather excitable, and that was even more so when I met a man named Franz Hopper."

I froze. That was Aelita's dad.

"Anyway, he showed me to this lab of his, and he let me – this is hard to believe, but he let me enter the computer that was there."

My mom had virtualized before. That was just too incredible.

"This was while I was still pregnant with you. We moved right after that, but I couldn't stop thinking about what effect the virtualization process would possibly have on you. Once you old enough to tell me about your dreams, I knew exactly what the effect was. For a long time I thought that your hair was the only effect." She laughed nervously. "I hope you don't mind that I've waited this long to tell you."

I smiled. "I don't mind, Mom. In fact, I'm glad that you told me at this time. Well, I've got to get to bed. 'Bye, Mom; I love you."

"I love you too, darling."

She didn't usually call me "Darling." I felt like crying as I hung up.

"Are you okay, Karen?"

I looked at Aelita. And I noticed that the scales were starting to fade. Had _that_ been all that was wrong with me? That I didn't know where my dreams came from?

"I'm okay, Aelita. I'm okay now."

* * *

**A/N: Sorry about how vague and fast this chapter is during the William attack. It's been a while since I've seen this episode.**


	14. Meteorite Attack!

_**Meteorite Attack!**_

**Karen **

_All the dragons flew through their routines normally. Then Yumi was given a job among the smaller dragons, and…blue –_

_Their schedules ran normally, and they all were talking in Jeremie's room, with Yumi making a comment that sparked a laugh._

I opened my eyes. This was not what I had in mind. What would we be doing in Lyoko? Anyway, I was all ready to avoid a repetition of the problem two days ago.

* * *

We were sailing through the digital sea in the Skid. I looked over my shoulder nervously. 

"It's so strange to be without my wings. Oh, and Jeremie? You'll have to launch a return trip at some point."

"Okay, but why?"

"Why else? An activated tower. And if you were asking why I'm telling you, it's because I don't want to be on Lyoko when it's launched."

Odd got a little cocky. "_**Ooh, someone's getting touchy**._"

That did it. "Odd. The last time I was on Lyoko during a Return to the Past, I was seeing humans as dragons. For a week and a half. Do you honestly think I'm interested in _repeating_ the experience?!"

Jeremie stopped any other comments. "Okay, okay, we all get the message. Don't worry, Karen; if I still have time, I'll bring you back to Earth."

I settled back in my seat. I couldn't ask for more than he could give, and he might not have time.

Then Jeremie told us to turn around: an activated tower on Lyoko.

**Yumi **

I was just getting tired of dealing with my brother in this solar system project. Hiroki could really be a pain, and when Johnny was with him, it could be near impossible getting them to work. Then Jeremie called, telling me about the activated tower. Brilliant news to me!

I was almost to the sewers when it occurred to me that the school must be evacuated, so I turned around and went back.

* * *

It was more than a little frustrating getting Jim and Mrs. Hertz to believe me, but then some of the meteors came into the atmosphere, silencing their complaints quickly. After getting permission from Mr. Delmas, the students started moving away from the school. 

Jeremie called me, though. He told me to get his laptop up to the top of the science building and hook it up to the antenna, so that he could try to take control of the satellite again and change the meteorite's path.

Well, what did I have to lose?

**Aelita **

All of us were trying to destroy Xana's monsters so that we could get to the tower. The trouble was, William was with them, coordinating their attacks.

Odd wound up getting shot, and I ran over to help him, with Karen hovering just above both of us. And then I noticed something strange: the Tarantulas started shooting at Ulrich instead! Odd and I were the vulnerable ones, even with Karen right there, and they were shooting at Ulrich!

That gave me an idea. I flew upwards, getting Karen's attention, and landed in front of the boys. After a second, Karen followed suit.

Odd asked, "What are you doing, Aelita?" He sounded like he thought I was crazy.

I answered, "Forcing Xana to make a choice."

William just stood there for the longest time staring at us. Then he smirked, like he thought this was easy, and started walking towards us.

I glanced back. "Odd, devirtualize me."

"What???"

Karen spoke up, forming a fireball in her hand. "You devirtualize me, and I'll do the same."

I shrugged and tossed an energy field at her while she pitched her fireball. When the scanner opened, I looked over at Karen with a smile. "Sometimes in order to win, you have to know how to lose."

Karen just smiled.

* * *

I went back up to Jeremie and explained to Yumi over the phone as the attack was neutralized, "Xana wanted to capture either me or Karen more than he wanted to destroy the supercomputer. With both of us on Earth, he couldn't do either." 

Then it was Jeremie's turn to talk: "Return to the Past now."

**Karen **

I rubbed my head ruefully. I may not be seeing dragons anymore, but the return trips always made me feel strange.

Yumi came in and Odd asked, "So, how did it go?"

"You might not believe this, but we got the highest grade!"

After we all congratulated her, she tossed a small ball in the air and continued, "So I decided to keep Johnny's moon. I owe him that much, even if he doesn't remember anything."

Ulrich commented, "So your brother isn't as bad as you make him out to be, is he?"

Yumi sort of backed off that subject. "Yeah…he can be pretty handy when he wants to be. That's what worries me."

I asked, "Really? How come?"

Yumi closed Jeremie's door and turned around. "Because now I know that it's pointless locking the door to my room."


	15. Sick Day for Dragon Girl

_**Sick Day for Dragon-Girl**_

**Karen **

_White was coughing up smoke, so her teachers said that she couldn't come on the field trip. She watched out the window as the dark green started smoking and then she and the others flew off – _

_Danger! She had to virtualize Dark-Gold to Lyoko do rescue the Skid and hold off William – _

_She lay in bed, relieved at being able to stay still._

I opened my eyes with a violent cough. Great. Why did I have to come down with the flu, anyway? What else could it be?

"Are you all right, Karen?" I looked at Aelita, sitting up on her bed looking very worried.

"I. Am going. To the infirmary. I think I came down with something. Guess I won't be going on this field trip, huh?"

"Don't worry. Someone will have to keep an eye out for Xana, and since everyone else will be gone, then-"

"What about Yumi?"

"She has a test, so she can't come either. Don't worry."

I sighed, a sigh which ended in a cough. "I'm more worried about Sissi. She started blowing off some serious smoke in my dream, and I don't even know what about. I'll probably hear about it from her tomorrow, so could you possibly tell me what the problem is?"

Aelita nodded. "So, what's going to happen around campus?"

**Yumi **

I sighed. "Not one: two tests! You lucky dogs, I wish I could go with you."

Ulrich answered, "I'd sneak you along, but we already have a lucky dog aboard, and you know who I mean."

"Well, I've got to get to my Math class." I hung up and walked in. Sitting down next to the clone of William, I complained, "You're lucky you're a computer program, this math test is going to be a piece of cake for you."

Then he made me feel not so certain. "What's a math test and a piece of cake?"

* * *

Five minutes before my French class I got a phone call from Aelita telling me that there was no reception at their island, so I would have to check the supercomputer regularly. So I ran off to the factory.

When I got there, Karen was sitting at the supercomputer with a kerchief tied over her mouth and nose, already checking things.

"Is there anything there, Karen?"

Karen looked at me and answered, "No, but don't leave. There will be an activated tower in a few seconds, and you're the one going to Lyoko."

Sure enough, the alarm went off.

**Aelita **

I was very relieved when Jeremie used the antenna I found to contact Karen. He started giving directions to her for running the program when Odd and Ulrich ran back over to us.

Odd reported, "The diversion's all set, but we'll need Aelita."

I nodded and ran with them, and soon I was under a blanket in a rubber dinghy with Ulrich. Rather quickly, he started rowing frantically, so the electric monster was probably catching up.

He let out a yell and fell forward, unconscious, while the dinghy drifted to a stop against the shore. I lifted my head up and looked over at the luggage that had been left behind, a piece of which was Sissi's bike.

I smiled. "Let's see how fast I can pedal!"

**

* * *

Yumi **

I managed to destroy both of the Crabs that were guarding the tower, getting shot into it in the process.

My fan flew back to me and I started back out. Then I felt like someone was behind me.

It was William! He kicked me out of the tower and proceeded to try slashing me with his sword!

After chasing me for a while, he managed to kick me over, pin me down with his foot, and he was ready to devirtualize me then and there. I begged, "No, William! You're a Lyoko warrior, you swore to it!"

And William…_stopped!_ Then he dropped his sword, fell to his knees, and started yelling in pain. I got up and backed away until he finally stopped moving. When he looked up, his face…it was more distressed than murderous. This was the _real_ William!

I helped him to his feet and he looked down at his sword. Karen could have described his face then in many poetic ways. I think he just looked sad. I reached slowly for his face and his hand moved up over mine, almost touching.

Then he grabbed my wrist and kicked me over again. Xana was back!

"Yumi, Aelita just finished running the program for the Skid. Now she'll be virtualizing as fast as I can manage."

I backed right to the edge of the sector and barely held my balance there. William was all set to slash me when Aelita's Energy Field blew him over the edge.

"Just in time!"

I was still looking after him.

"Yumi, is something wrong?"

I looked at her. "For a second there, the _real_ William came back, Aelita."

"That means that we _will_ rescue him someday."

"I've set up the coordinates for the return trip, Aelita. Get that tower deactivated!"

Aelita ran for the tower, got in, and entered the code. Then I heard Karen's voice.

"Return to the past now."

**

* * *

Karen **

I let out one last cough, then called Aelita.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better, now that I can finally relax."

"Well, I don't know how you'll feel when I tell you what Sissi was 'blowing off some smoke' about."

I sat up straighter. "What? Talk."

"Well…by student vote, she isn't the most popular girl in the school anymore."

"Awesome! She took that title _way_ too seriously." Then I realized that Aelita had said that with a laugh in her voice. "Um…Aelita? Who _is_ the most popular girl in the school?"

I heard her muffled voice on the other end. I think she asked one of the others if she should tell me. Then she got on again and answered the question. "You are, Karen."

I sat in shock for a minute. _I_ was the most popular girl in the school? Well, I _was_ nothing less than polite to all the students. Oh, all right, I wasn't that polite to Sissi, but she didn't give me any reason to _be_ polite. "Well now," I said into the phone, trying to sound indifferent, "this is a case of the right dragons coming to roost."

I heard Aelita's laugh on the other end as I burst into another coughing fit. "Well, I had better let you get some rest."

"Goodbye, Aelita."

"Goodbye, Karen."

I hung up. I needed more time to think about this turn of events. At least it wouldn't interfere with our Lyoko battles. Not if I had any say about things.


	16. We've Lost Yumi!

**_We've Lost Yumi!_**

**Karen**

_White flew out alongside Pink-Gold to meet the others. Kind Bronze was a little late in their get-together, but he flew over quickly. Kind Bronze explained something over breakfast, and then they split up for a while. When they met up again at lunch time, Dark Gold seemed very upset about something. After lunch, they went off to the factory and…blue._

_Then they came back…without Dark Gold. White went off with Strong Bronze and Little Brown, and they all curled up near a tree. A little rat ran over with something in its mouth, and Little Brown took it with a cry of excitement. Then someone else contacted Strong Bronze, they went back and…more blue._

_Finally, they had Dark Gold again, and the rest of the day went fine._

I opened my eyes. We were going to lose Yumi for a while? Should I tell the others?

"So what's happening today, Karen?"

I looked at Aelita. "Um…I'd rather not talk about it."

Her eyebrows went up. "That bad, huh?"

I nodded. "And what's worse, I can't see how to change it; the problem's in Lyoko."

* * *

We walked over to Ulrich and Odd. 

"Hey, Aelita. Where's Einstein?" Odd, of course.

"I haven't seen him yet today."

Then Ulrich used some of his usual snide-sounding talk. "Speak of the devil," and he pointed. There was Jeremie, running over with a…red mark on his head?

"Sorry I'm late!"

Odd asked, "Let me guess: you fell asleep at your computer again?"

Jeremie was surprised. "Yes, but how could you tell?"

"You've got an imprint from your keyboard."

That set us laughing. Then Jeremie explained. "I was up all night working on a new program."

"Ulrich?" I didn't know that voice. I looked over, and saw a little boy.

Ulrich apparently knew him. "Yeah, Hiroki, what is it?"

"Um…can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Uh sure."

* * *

Jeremie explained a new program over breakfast and Ulrich gave us an inside view of Hiroki's love life. The boy was in love with Milly. Isn't love fascinating? 

Jeremie added, in reference to his new program, "And the best part is, now all that's left is to test it!"

**Ulrich**

As we walked away, Odd and I, we suddenly ran into Hiroki.

Or rather, Hiroki ran into Odd.

As the kid dashed away, with Yumi hot on his heels, I picked up a book from the ground. "Is this yours, Odd?"

I got my answer even as Odd answered me: no. There was a picture of me in the book!

"This belongs to Yumi, doesn't it?" Odd guessed.

I closed the book. "This is Yumi's diary. No wonder she was chasing Hiroki."

"Hey, this is your big chance to find out what she thinks of you."

"Oh, no. What's in this diary is none of my business. Besides, I already told you we're just friends."

Odd smirked. "Are you sure?"

I stopped. "No, Odd. No I'm not. Especially not after that talk that she and Karen had during Jeremie's crash course."

* * *

Just before lunch, I almost gave Yumi's diary back to her, but then Hiroki ran over and apologized for not finding her diary. And Yumi, well… 

"Well, until you find that diary, you can consider yourself an only child."

As she walked away, I realized something, and pulled Odd away from the others. "Odd, if I gave Yumi her diary back, she'll still be mad at Hiroki. So instead I'm going to hide the diary and let Hiroki find it. That will be getting two birds with one stone: Yumi gets her diary back, and Hiroki gets his sister back."

I gave the diary to Odd to hide and went to find Hiroki. I suggested that maybe the groundskeeper raked the diary into a pile of leaves by accident and the kid took off.

* * *

Thanks to my hints, Hiroki found the diary – well, the cover, anyway. As if that wasn't bad enough, Yumi showed up right then! 

She took one look at the empty cover and said, "Hiroki, I'll never forgive you!" Then she stormed off.

I looked at Odd.

"Hey, don't look at me, good buddy. It was all there when I hid it."

* * *

We went to Lyoko to try out Jeremie's new program. As we were going up in the Skid, Karen said, "**_I've done this several times,_ _and it's_ still_ amazing!_**" 

As soon as Jeremie inserted the program, though, our sonar bugged up! Then three Kongres showed up and started blasting at us. Aelita released us to fight, and all of us blasted away the fish-face freaks. But when she called us back, Yumi didn't come!

"We can't look for her now. We have to go back."

"What? No!" I thudded my fist against the window of the NavSkid. "We can't just leave her out here!"

Aelita answered me. "**_No one's leaving anyone behind. But we can't risk all of us being virtualized permanently!_**"

I sighed. "You're right. Let's go."

* * *

When I asked how long it would take to find Yumi, Jeremie started getting technical. 

I couldn't stand it. "_How long_ until we can go to Lyoko again?"

"Hey, I'm doing the best that I can!"

Aelita tried to cool me down. "Don't worry. I'll be helping him."

I walked away, with Odd and Karen trailing after.

"So…can I guess why Yumi was so mad?" Karen asked.

"Hiroki made off with her diary and then he lost it."

Karen was very quiet after that. Then Kiwi ran over with something in his mouth.

"Whatcha got there, buddy?" Odd took the something from Kiwi's mouth and suddenly got excited. "Ulrich, this is Yumi's diary!"

"What?!" I couldn't believe it!

"Yeah! Kiwi must've seen me bury it, but he thought it was a game, so he dug it up and buried it again, right where we're sitting!"

"Oh, that's great: now we have Yumi's diary, but we don't have Yumi!"

**Yumi**

I was floating in the digital sea, slowly losing power, calling frantically for someone, anyone, who might be able to hear me.

"It's so cold here." I shivered. I couldn't stop thinking about all the moments I've spent with Hiroki. Then I saw a Kongre coming towards me.

"Okay, I've only got one torpedo left, so I'd better make it count." I tried to fire it, but… "Oh, no! I don't have enough power!"

I dodged one of the Kongre's shots, put the power of my shields into the torpedo, and tried again. That worked, but now I had to run from two more! In a short time, though, I couldn't run anymore.

"It's over." The Kongre was staring in my front windshield. But he wasn't firing. "What's he waiting for?" Then it looked off to its right and took off. When I looked, I saw a NavSkid flying towards me, and since it wasn't quite the same design as my own, I didn't have any trouble guessing who was flying it!

It fired at me, I screamed – and the Skid got in the way!

Then I heard Aelita's voice. "**_Did you really think you could go running off without us?_**"

"Am I glad to see you guys!"

The NavSkids were released, and they chased out the Kongres and William. After about three minutes, Jeremie called all of us back.

* * *

After supper, I went into my room, and I found that my diary was lying on my bed! Hiroki stopped in my doorway and said, "Um, Yumi? I'm really, really sorry I took your diary." 

I walked over to him. "Thanks for bringing it back, Hiroki."

Hiroki stared at me for a minute. Then he asked, "Are you in love, Yumi?"

"Ugh! Get out of my room!" I shut the door in his face laughing.

* * *

**A/N: Karen obviously doesn't say much in this chapter. Don't worry, she'll be more active in the next chapter.**


	17. First Attempt at Destruction

**_First Attempt at Destruction_**

**Karen**

_Kind Bronze told them about something in the cafeteria. Dark-Gold was extremely mad at Strong Bronze, and he asked Little Brown to do something for him. Little Brown agreed. That night, they went to the factory and…blue._

_That night, Strong Bronze, Little Brown, and White were in the boys' cave. Small Brown opened a box for his rat creature, but instead pulled out a cord with a jewel on it! He looked at the cord with a miserable expression._

I opened my eyes. "Why is Yumi mad at Ulrich?"

Aelita spoke up from the other side of the room. "I have no idea."

* * *

Jeremie told us that his teleportation program to the Replika's world was successful, and we were going to test it tonight. I only understood half of what he said, but it sounded good.

After the talk, I got to overhear Ulrich and Odd.

"Now that's what I call being snubbed! What did you do?"

"I don't know. She hasn't spoken to me in two days!"

"You mean since her birthday?"

"What? That was her birthday?"

"Yup! I hope you wished her happy birthday, she's very sensitive about that."

"Aagh, I completely forgot! She'll hold that against me for weeks!"

"Don't worry, just get her a present and she'll be back to you in no time!"

"Uh…I have detention after class. I won't have time."

"I'll do it. I already have some shopping to do for me and Kiwi."

"Really? Thanks."

I smiled. Suddenly, I figured I knew why Odd had such a miserable expression when he pulled out the cord: he had given Ulrich the wrong box! That, at least, is something I knew I could help him avoid.

**Ulrich**

That night, we ran to the factory. Karen, Odd and I were lagging behind a little.

Odd dug into his bag, pulled out a small box, and gave it to me. "Here you go."

"What's in it?"

"A surprise! I guarantee that Yumi will forgive you!"

Suddenly, Karen took the box from me! "Wait a minute," she said. "Odd? Give him the other box and take my word for it."

Odd hesitated, then pulled out an identical box and gave it to me.

Karen nodded. "Good boy. Here." And she gave the first box back to Odd. We slid down the cables and joined the others in the elevator.

* * *

On Lyoko, we were beamed into the Skid and we took off.

"_**Replika, here we come!**_" Odd, of course.

"Can you make him shut up?" I asked.

"_**Why? He's really nice, unlike **_**some**_** people.**_" _Yu_mi. Why can't she just drop it?

"_**Amazing! They're actually **_**talking**_** to each other!**_"

"_**Shut up, Odd!**_" We agreed on _that_, at least.

* * *

Aelita opened the door, and we came up in the Replika. It looked just like the forest sector at Lyoko. She docked, and Jeremie activated the tower. He beamed away Aelita and Odd…

"Uh, Jeremie? It didn't work; I'm still here."

"It's normal. I forgot to tell you: this time, I'm only teleporting Aelita and Odd. You, Karen, and Yumi have to guard the Skid. Who knows what Xana's going to do."

"You should have told us. We could have drawn lots."

**Aelita**

We appeared in the middle of a jungle, still dressed like we are in Lyoko. Odd thought it was amazing, while I simply accepted it. Okay, okay, I thought it was impressive also.

To make a long story short, we found the factory, where Xana-possessed people were manufacturing enormous spiders, and finally found the supercomputer. However, we disappeared before we could destroy it!

"Jeremie, what happened?"

"William deactivated the tower! You have to get out of there!"

So, I flew the Skid out of the Replika and headed home.

**Karen**

Back in the lab, Aelita was stressing about cybernetic spiders. "We must figure out what Xana's going to do with them!"

I patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, Aelita. We'll go back to the Replika and destroy the supercomputer then. But first..."

Then Odd made a wisecrack about sleeping for a few years.

* * *

On the bridge, Ulrich gave Yumi the package. "Happy Birthday!"

And - aww, isn't that sweet? She gave him a kiss on the cheek!

Aelita looked sad, though.

"You're thinking about your birthday, aren't you?" Jeremie asked.

"Well, that's one of the things that I can't remember."

"In that case, all you have to do is choose a day."

"Can you choose for me?"

"OK."

Then there was silence for a minute.

"Well? What day?"

"No, I won't tell you. It's a surprise!"

* * *

I joined Odd and Ulrich in their room.

"Thanks for doing some shopping for me, Odd," Ulrich said.

"Oh! That reminds me. I hope you did the right thing giving Yumi the other box, Karen."

I just grinned.

Odd opened the box and... "Hey! You _did_ get it right!"

Ulrich and I just laughed.


	18. Second Visit

_**Second Visit**_

**Karen**

_Small Brown showed up Large Brown in gym class and got a lot of smoke in his face. Then later, Strong Bronze sent a serious smoky dare at Small Brown, and the little guy agreed. Much later, they went to the factory and…blue._

_The day ended peacefully._

I opened my eyes. Did Odd get in trouble with Jim again?

* * *

At gym class, Jim was going through the list again. "One: run. Two: jump off the spring board. Three: set your hands on the horse. Four:" and I can't remember four. "Five: land on your feet on the mat." He gave a demonstration, but he ended up falling practically on his head!

Odd laughed, "He went to five without passing four!"

Then Herve tried it. He went clean over the horse and landed on his back on the mat!

"How did he do that?" I asked. "I think it would take a genius to miss like that!"

Odd tried it next and did it perfectly. Then he said, very snobbishly, "You're right, Jim: only a half-wit couldn't do it."

Bingo. He got detention. Then Ulrich made a dare to him: "I bet you a week of desserts that you can't go twenty-four hours without bragging."

"You're on!"

Jeremie got them both back on track by telling us, basically, that we were going back to the jungle.

**Ulrich**

We made it to the Replika, and Aelita docked the Skid on a tower. This time, Yumi and I went in. We found the door, but, we couldn't get it open. Okay, okay, I smashed the control panel when it didn't open for Yumi. "What do we do now?"

"Uh, get to the power generator and neutralize it."

Yumi smiled at me. "I'll stay here and guard the door. You go find the generator."

I dashed off on Jeremie's direction and found it.

"What does it look like, Ulrich?"

"Well, uh…like this big machine with a bunch of flashing thingamajigs all over it."

That got him to laugh, at least. "Do you see a red button?"

"There's not just one, there's a lot of them! This thing's lit up like a pinball machine!"

"Just go by elimination."

"No. I'd rather do this my way."

"_Your_ way, huh Ulrich? Like, smashing it with your saber and short-circuiting the supercomputer?"

"You guessed it."

"Uh, give me a minute to think it over."

* * *

It did take about a minute for Jeremie to get back to me. "Ulrich? Your plan may lack finesse, but it should work. Do it."

I slammed it with both sabers and jumped back as it sparked.

"Great work, guys. Head back to the Skid. Mission accomplished."

Suddenly, power started up all over the room! "Uh, hold on, Jeremie, something's up."

"What is it, Ulrich?"

"The power's back on."

"Ulrich, there's gotta be a backup generator somewhere!"

"Gee, you think? Even I could have figured that out, only where is it?"

"How should I know? I'm looking for it!"

"Well, you'd better hurry. I'm heading back to Yumi."

I got there just in time to save Yumi from a spider, and then we were both running from the spiders. Jeremie did find the backup, but by then, well…

**Odd**

I took out William all by myself! "Jeremie, what happened to the two lovebirds?" I looked up at the Skid. "Oh, I see. They knocked each other out!"

Karen asked, "Does this mean the mission's a failure?"

"Not at all! I found the auxiliary generator, but there's no one to destroy it."

I piped up. "Not to sound like I'm bragging, but…there's me."

"All right, Odd. You and Karen get back in the Skid. I'll teleport you both."

"No, Jeremie. Someone has to protect the Skid, and Odd volunteered to go."

I yelled, "When this is over, don't say I went just to show off!"

I dropped into the lab and followed Jeremie's directions to find the generator. One big problem, though, was that the generator was surrounded by spiders. Then Jeremie gave the bad news: "You're on your own, and you have to act fast or we'll lose the Skid, Ulrich, and Yumi!"

I lunged around the corner. "_Geronimo!_"

Well, to make a long story short, I took out all the spiders and shot out the generator with my last arrow. Then Einstein beamed me back to the Skid – in Aelita's place, actually. "Nice place you got here, Aelita!"

Ulrich woke up right about then. "_**Huh? What's happening?**_"

"Nothing, Ulrich. Everything's cool. Go back to sleep."

Jeremie beamed Karen back to the Skid, and I flew it out. Piece of cake – for someone like me.

* * *

**A/N: This chapter is kind of fast, but it will be the last one that coincides almost perfectly with the episode. The others will definitely be a bit stranger.**


	19. Judas' Kiss

_**Judas' Kiss**_

**Karen**

_Pink-Gold was very upset because of nightmares that morning. Kind Bronze, Strong Bronze, and Small Brown all left with their families. Then Pink Gold got a message and went to Lyoko. Soon after that, a message came through and…blue._

_Later, they were in Jeremie's room, and presents were given out._

I looked up. Maybe I could convince Mom to let me stay here?

* * *

Ulrich wasn't very happy to be leaving. "During the holidays, my dad gets more stressed out than ever, and that makes my mom hysterical. I'd rather stay here." 

The boys all left, and Aelita, Yumi and I were all standing at the gates.

"Well, I'd better get home. I'm supposed to help my mom clean up."

I called my own mom and got her permission to stay at the school. My excuse was that I didn't want to be pestered by my little brother.

"You didn't have to do that, you know."

"Yeah, I know. I just…"

Aelita was quiet for a minute. Then she said, "You still didn't have to."

I grinned. "Anything's better than Mark, Aelita!"

**Aelita**

I laughed. Karen did have a sense of humor.

We went to our room, where I settled down reading. Then a window popped up on my computer, and it was playing "Twinkle, twinkle little star"!

I walked over. The next thing that happened on the screen was a message from my father! He was expecting me on Lyoko!

The screen bugged up, so I couldn't get an answer. I looked at Karen. Her face was announcing that she knew that this was going to happen. "I'll virtualize you. He wants you either in the Ice Sector or Sector Five, and I'm inclined to think Ice Sector."

I smiled. "You know, you're getting more and more like Jeremie."

"I most certainly hope not: he'd try to stop you, where I know you must. The dragons say so."

I laughed. Her jokes about her dreams were something of a relief.

* * *

I dropped into the Ice Sector. There was a simulation bubble there! I ran over and pushed through. I was home! 

Going into the house, I found my father playing the piano. I won't be ashamed to say that I started crying in his arms. He had escaped destruction. He had a message for Jeremie, but first…

"By the way, Aelita, did you virtualize yourself?"

"No, Daddy. This time, Karen did. She's the only Lyoko warrior currently with me. She knew this was supposed to happen."

"Well then, I'd like to meet her. I can just send her a message and she'll be here shortly."

"I'm not sure she'll answer. She didn't tell me this part of her dream, and she doesn't like virtualizing."

Daddy looked a little spaced. Then he said, "She's answered. She'll be here in just a few minutes."

I told him about the Skidbladnir, and for a moment he seemed confused. He only acknowledged where it came from when I reminded him.

* * *

Sure enough, in just a few minutes Karen came walking in. And by then, I had reached a conclusion. "You know, Daddy, when I said that everything was as I remembered, I meant it." 

"Of course, Aelita. I wanted you to feel like you were right at home."

"Yes, and everything is here, not one thing is missing…except one thing."

"What's that?"

I narrowed my eyes. "My mother."

Both his eyebrows and Karen's went up. "But Aelita, your mother disappeared a long time ago."

"I know. And I miss her very much. And I'd want to see her again very much and you _know_ that. And since you're such a perfectionist, you'd have made a replica of her in the simulation _unless_ you're not really my father."

He started standing up.

I stepped back. "You keep away from me, Xana!" I ran through a door, but was immediately forced back – by William!

Karen knocked him flat and dragged me out of the house. It was almost exactly like the time that William tried to kidnap me on Earth. Then we ran into the edge of the bubble.

Karen asked, "Now what?"

I sang my creativity, and shattered the bubble. Actually, I didn't know that would work. I was guessing.

William said, forming his sword from smoke, "It doesn't matter. I can destroy you no matter what."

Karen laughed at him. "You talk a lot more, but there isn't really anything to it."

**Karen**

A hum reached my ears. It sounded a lot like the Overbike. Aelita and I both tried to take flight, but the Blok that used to be Franz Hopper shot Aelita back down.

"You want to leave? Be my guest!" William said. He used some smoke trick, lifted her up, and threw her over into the Digital Sea! And the Blok started shooting at me again, so I couldn't rescue her! But then William looked over.

Ulrich commented, "It's like he's waiting for something."

Then a big glowing bubble came from the Digital Sea!

William yelled, pumping his sword in the air, "Victory!"

By then, another Blok had joined him. They both started shooting at the bubble, which apparently was Franz Hopper. I flew out to the other platform and stared at Xana's Manta. Odd destroyed one Blok and the Manta, while I hovered, uncertain about what I should do. By then, Franz had dropped Aelita and William had downed Ulrich.

Then William destroyed Odd and came to my platform. He almost did away with Franz, but Aelita threw an Energy Field. That was just enough time for Franz to get away. William, in a fit of temper, destroyed Aelita and yelled, "NO!"

I laughed and dived for him. "Now it's _my_ turn to destroy _you_!"

He looked up at me and…dropped his sword. My claws impacted his chest and I snarled, "It's over, William."

And he…_kissed_ me! As he was disappearing, he kissed me on the lips! Just before he disappeared completely, he said, "No, Karen. It's just beginning."

I landed again – not the best landing, considering my angle. What was _that_ about?

* * *

"It's simple, really," Jeremie said. "Franz Hopper managed to escape when Lyoko went down. Xana knew that the only way to get Franz Hopper to appear was to rescue Aelita." 

I hadn't told him about the kiss. He was explaining how Franz Hopper was able to rescue Aelita.

Then Odd handed out his presents to everyone. I laughed at the lousy picture of a dragon that he gave to me. Oh, well. It's the thought that counts.

Jeremie invited Aelita to stay with his family for the holidays. Both she and I stared out the window. "What are you thinking, Aelita?"

"About my father. Even as a specter, I could still feel his presence; like he was holding me in his arms."

I was glad that Aelita's answer was so cryptic. It meant that nobody would ask me about _my_ space-out look, and I wasn't sure I wanted to tell them about the kiss. It did make things simpler for Ulrich if he knew, but…

What was its purpose? And was _I_ falling in love?


	20. Transformation

_**Transformation**_

**Karen**

_White and her wing of friends were getting a great deal of amusement out of Small Brown's hard luck. Then they went to the factory and...blue._

_Then they finished the day without any other surprises._

I opened my eyes and stretched out on my bed, clutching my hands on the pillow. Then I heard a distinct rip.

That…couldn't have been right. I opened my hands and looked at them.

And that's when I got the shock of my life. My hands were claws! "Aelita?" I turned towards her. "Am I the only one seeing this?"

Aelita looked at my hands in shock. "I see it, Karen. What could have caused _that_?"

I sighed. I hadn't wanted to tell her about the kiss, but… "On Lyoko yesterday, when I destroyed William? Before he disappeared, he…kissed me. I think Xana gave me a virus when he did that."

Then it was Aelita's turn to sigh. "We've got to tell Jeremie."

"No, I'm afraid I just don't trust him enough for that." Then I laughed ruefully. "This is worse than when Odd merged with Kiwi, isn't it?"

Aelita said sternly, "This isn't supposed to be funny, Karen." But she was starting to smile, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

I pulled on my oversized sweatshirt. It would hide my arms, anyway. I was scaled to my shoulders.

* * *

Odd was having some pretty bad luck during breakfast. According to Ulrich's comments, Odd had broken a mirror.

Later on Lyoko – well, actually, it was another replica – Jeremie zapped Yumi and Ulrich to Earth. He had tried to send Odd, but somehow it didn't work.

"Hey, Jeremie, how about I go along? I haven't been zapped yet."

"Well, why not? Teleportation Karen."

**Ulrich**

I saw Karen drop in. She looked even more amazing on Earth. "Over here, Karen!"

She ran over. "So what's up?"

Yumi answered. "Since you're white, we'll have to move quickly."

Karen pretended to sulk. "Why don't you just say because I'm the most obvious and get it over with?"

We ran to the factory and Yumi activated the elevator. As we were waiting, I asked, "Hey, Yumi, I never asked you this: what monster do you like fighting the least?"

"That's easy: the Kankrelats. I just can't stand fighting big bugs. Ugh!"

"Yeah. I most hate fighting the Megatanks. Karen?"

"William."

I smirked. William _had_ devirtualized her twice before she could best him. "Good for you, but we're talking about – "

Yumi interrupted me. "Kankrelat!"

"Yeah, we know, you already said – "

"No, I mean over there – Kankrelat!"

Xana was sending us some monsters to play with!

Yumi's fan got one, and Karen threw a fire ball and an ice ball for the other two, but more showed up. We got into the elevator and I hit the button with my elbow.

Yumi complained as we went down, "Couldn't he have sent us some Crabs?"

I retorted, "I prefer Hornets. Jeremie?"

"What?"

"I know why Xana activated the tower. He's sending us some Kankrelats!"

* * *

We whapped a bunch of those guys in a room with an assembly line – I even got to use one of Karen's ice balls!

Then Jeremie told us that one had to go back and fight William, because Odd was gone and Aelita was chasing the tower.

Karen suddenly went chicken! "I'd better not." No explanation at all!

I suggested, "We could play for it." So we went rock-paper-scissors with Yumi, and it was two scissors to one paper – Yumi.

She was de-energized, and Karen and I went to find the computer.

I found it – but there were a bunch of Krankrelats in there! And according to Jeremie, the tower couldn't be deactivated!

* * *

After waiting for a little bit, I heard Jeremie call me back. "Hey, Ulrich, I bet you're still waiting for some good news?"

My head popped up. "Hey, yeah!"

"Sorry, don't have any. You and Karen are on your own, the tower's still active, and you're probably going to get a bug that I don't know how to fix."

"Great. Is that it?"

"No. Either you two hurry, or one of you beam back right now, because some Tarantulas are attacking the Skid."

Karen groaned. "We don't have time to go to the Skid, wake up again, and beam out again to fight! Let's do it, Ulrich. You do all the fighting, and I'll make sure you don't get sneak-attacked."

I opened the door, saying, "Okay guys, are you ready to rumble?"

I lunged in and destroyed most of them – I think Karen got the last one. Then I started flickering, and Karen lunged for the supercomputer.

I think my sabers hit it first, but I'm not sure. I know that Karen came out of the scanners at about the same time, so she must have let it destroy her.

As the elevator came up to Jeremie's level, I heard Jeremie's voice. "And another replica bites the dust."

I came in with a big smile. "Who's the man this time?" I stopped next to Odd. "Well, Odd? What do you say?"

Odd's answer: "Luck. That's what _I_ say."

"I figured you'd say that."

Behind me, Karen sighed. I think she said "Boys."


	21. Flyaway

**_Flyaway_**

**Karen**

_Mail call. Small Brown got a box with brown jars in it, Pink-Gold got a card, and Kind Bronze got a paper that distressed him. Then they - all but Kind Bronze, who was off on a trip - rushed to the factory. White sent the others to Lyoko, then rushed out to stop a meteor - _

_White was with Kind Bronze and Pink-Gold, and they were talking._

I opened my eyes and groaned. What was with my back? It felt too heavy to lift.

Then I heard Aelita. "Karen?"

"What?"

"I can see your problem."

I thought about her tone. "Do I want to know?"

"You've got wings."

_That_ hit me. I struggled to move and fell out of bed. I landed on my back and felt a burst of pain that wasn't on my spine. "Um…Aelita? I could use some help."

Aelita got me sitting up and helped me fold my wings properly. "How are you going to hide these?"

I looked at the bat wings sprouting from my shoulders. "The same way I hide my arms, of course: under my sweatshirt."

**Aelita**

When the mail call went up, I got an unsigned postcard! I hadn't a clue who could possibly have sent it. Jeremie got a card that said he had won a flight in a fighter jet, and Odd claimed guilty.

Karen sighed. "I figured this would happen. Odd? Try offering your stuff to Jim the next time he comes looking for something unusual. Jeremie, you still have to go on this flight, but Xana's attack is going to call for a return trip and Odd's going to go by your name the second time around. Aelita…" And she hesitated.

I looked at her. "Do you know who sent it?"

She finished, "You should find out for yourself."

I knew her face. She had on her How-Much-Should-I-Tell-Her face just before she answered. Plus, she was nervous. I think that meant someone at the table was the guilty one.

But who?

* * *

I looked at some of my friends' handwriting during class and I wasn't sure I had found the culprit before I was caught.**Jeremie**

I went to the jet and was introduced to the pilot. After he described the flight in terrifying detail, I said, "That sounds great, but there's one part I'd rather you left out."

"What's that?"

"The flight!"

While they stared at me, I elaborated, "I'm actually terrified of planes, but I didn't want to chicken out in front of my friends. This way, you can take a few pictures of me in the jet, you'll get your job done, your magazine can save some money," I zipped my jacket, "and my friends will think I actually went on the flight!"

Now, I didn't think Karen would be fooled, but she'd understand. Wouldn't she?

"Sure, why not?"

**Odd**

I opened the dog food in my room, and immediately held it away. "Whew! What normal dog would ever eat this stuff?"

Ulrich asked me, "Whoever said that your dog is normal, Odd?"

Kiwi's barking got Jim's attention. He came in and immediately asked where the dog was.

I said, "That was me! Whenever I eat this…homemade pate that my mom makes for me, that's what happens! Ruff, ruff!"

Jim said that it smelled good and I took Karen's advice and gave it to him.

**Jeremie**

Some pictures were taken and the magazine guy said, "It's a wrap!"

I sighed. "Thank the heavens I'm not going into the heavens!"

I guess I spoke too soon, because the cockpit closed and the jet took off! "I thought we weren't going to fly!"

"I know, but I'm not the one controlling it. It's running on automatic, and the plane's flying itself like some kind of virus is controlling it!"

_Virus? Xana!_

The pilot tried to reboot the system, but Xana shocked him into unconsciousness. I told the crew on the ground not to worry, that I thought I could control the situation. Yeah, right.

* * *

I called the factory. Aelita and everyone was there. "If you're all at the factory, that means there's an activated tower."

"Relax, Jeremie. We can handle this."

"There's just one little detail: Xana has taken control of the fighter jet that I'm in."

Odd asked, "What are you going to do about it?"

"Unfortunately, the jet is armed. Xana must have a target in mind."

I gave Aelita my coordinates and she punched them into the supercomputer. According to Aelita, I was headed straight for the factory!

"That means that Xana's target is the supercomputer!"

"You'll be in firing range in fifteen minutes."

"Then that's all the time you have left to deactivate the tower!"

**Karen**

I was silent for a moment. Then I told Aelita, "You go to Lyoko. I'll send you in. I can be careful enough to type with these claws."

"What will you be doing after that?"

My face was grim. "Stopping the missile!"

I sent Aelita to Lyoko, listening to Jeremie's plea for us to be careful.

I managed to warn Aelita and the others about the Crabs and William, but they weren't doing so hot. Aelita was stuck, Ulrich was fighting William, and Odd and Yumi were devirtualized. I said, "Yumi, you watch the supercomputer. I'm going to watch for the missile." I stripped my sweatshirt and shirt off outside, spread my wings, and started taking short practice flights around the factory. Then, when I deemed myself ready for serious flight, I settled down on the roof and waited.

* * *

Soon, I saw the missile fly into view. I took off and flew towards it.

_This is the stupidest thing you've ever done, Karen. Admit it._

I managed to grab hold of the missile with my newly-armored claws and tried my hardest to turn it. It wouldn't turn. So I chose my last-resort move: I crawled to the end of the missile, grabbed one of its tail fins, and yanked. Thanks to my brand-new strength, it pulled right off, making it spin off course. Unfortunately, I had overlooked one little detail: _how_ it would spin. Its flames hit me dead on, and I screamed.

As I fell, barely conscious, I saw the fighter jet coming down towards the factory, and it seemed like Jeremie was staring right at me. In my mind, I heard Yumi's voice:

"Return to the past now."

* * *

I followed Aelita into Jeremie's room. Aelita found the postcard about the same time that Jeremie came in.

"So you're the mystery postcard writer."

"Yep! The hardest part was disguising my handwriting, but it was worth it, wasn't it?"

"Yes, Jeremie. It helped me to see that I'm not alone in the world. Thank you."

Then Jim showed up in the doorway. "Belpois! I've been looking everywhere for you. Have you seen della Robbia?"

"Uh...what's he done?"

"Nothing at all. I'm just wondering if he's still got some of that homemade pate left. It tastes really delicious!"

Aelita and I laughed as Jeremie answered, "Sorry, Jim, he took off. He had a plane to catch."

After Jim left, Jeremie looked at me. "Karen..."

"What."

"Were you _flying_ before the return trip?"

I sighed and pulled off my sweatshirt. His eyes got big just looking at my arms. "How did _that_ happen?"

"Xana gave me a virus through William. I bet that I'll be a complete dragon in just a few days."

"Not if _I _can help it!"

"Jeremie, I think this is supposed to happen. It might help us in the future. Just let me decide what to do about it."

Jeremie sighed and nodded.


	22. Odd Goes Romeo

_**Odd Goes Romeo**_

**Karen**

_A brand-new bright gold dragon flew into school and met up with Green-Gold. Every male dragon in the place, including Small Brown, Strong Bronze, and Kind Bronze, were drooling over her, but she immediately took a shine to Small Brown alone. Later in the day, all four friends tried to talk sense into Small Brown, but he just blew smoke in their faces and left. White didn't even try to talk to him, because she knew it would be hopeless._

I opened my eyes. "There's a new neon-gold dragon coming to school, Aelita." Neon was the only way I could describe the shade.

"Really? And is there anything we should know about her?" Aelita's really starting to get the hang of understanding my dragons.

I answered as I checked my most recent transformation. For some reason, only my feet and my shins had changed this time. "Well…she's going to have all three of our boys drooling over her. I think she's a friend of Sissi's, and our resident snob is trying to get her slot as the most popular girl back. Goldie will take an extreme liking to Odd, and he'll spend practically the whole day with her. You guys try to talk sense into him, but he doesn't listen."

She sighed. "Sounds like Odd."

* * *

Sure enough, there was a new girl in town. Her hair was the same intense gold as her dragon in my dream. And her name was…Brynja? I don't know, it was a hard one. She was from Iceland; Sissi's pen pal. 

Every boy was falling head over heels trying to get her attention. In the cafeteria, every boy was doing something for her: letting her cut in line, pulling out a chair for her, filling her cup with water, one even carried her tray for her! I decided to be nice to Sissi and gave her a chair at my table. For some reason, I was sitting separate from the others today.

"I guess you weren't expecting this turn of events, were you Sissi?"

"No. This is the most irritating thing that's happened since Ulrich laughed in my face when I admitted my feelings to him!"

* * *

When Odd introduced her to us, I was polite as anything. I even smiled at her, which is rare even for my friends.

However, she only flirted with the boys and said nothing to us girls. Which was nothing more than what I'd expected. I seriously considered showing her my dragon-claws, but that would mean showing my friends, too. And currently, only Aelita and Jeremie knew about my...little problem.

I'm guessing that I still had the most-popular-girl status, but new people do get more attention simply because they're new. I wasn't worried.

* * *

I decided to stay out of the sense-knocking round, since I knew it wouldn't work. What I chose to do instead was go to sleep and find out what was happening the next day.

**Odd**

I took Brynja to the factory trying to explain what was so special about my friends. While I was in the factory talking, I heard some keys tapping. I looked, and she was at the supercomputer!

"Aah! No, don't touch anything!"

Nothing seemed to be wrong, so I led her away again.

**Karen**

_Kind Bronze and Pink-Gold went to the factory to check the supercomputer, and they found a problem. Pink-Gold went in first, followed by Strong Bronze and Dark Gold. Small Brown came later and went in to finish the job. After the problem was solved, Small Brown was forgiven and Neon-Gold left the school._

I opened my eyes. "We're going to have some problems with the supercomputer and I choose not to virtualize. If I had to guess, Odd made a fatal mistake last night."

Aelita groaned as I studied my legs. The scales had spread up onto my hips overnight. Would I shed once I was fully dragon?

**Aelita**

I decided to be stupid and virtualized on my own to watch for activated towers. Why didn't I listen to Karen when she mentioned problems? I ended up fighting William all by myself.

I was about to be thrown to the Digital Sea when Ulrich and Yumi showed up.

Jeremie chose to tell us _then_ that he couldn't bring us back until he fixed the computer.

Yumi was immediately sarcastic. "And you're telling us this _now_?"

Ulrich wasn't much better. "That's brilliant, Einstein, what's the _bad_ news?"

William was a bit more…Karen's word would be "talky"…this time. "How could I ask for anything more? I get to kill _three_ birds with one sword."

Ulrich retorted, "We'll see about that!"

"It's been seen to."

**Odd**

I watched Brynja swim for a little bit, but I couldn't stop thinking about my friends. Finally, I left for the factory.

Jeremie wasn't happy to see me, but I told him to virtualize me anyway.

I got there after Ulrich and Yumi were devirtualized, and Aelita was very happy to see me!

I asked William as I fired a laser arrow, "You think I'm scared of that popsicle stick?"

I did manage to destroy William, but he threw a smoke thing at Aelita that sent her off the edge of the sector! I jumped after her and fired an arrow to activate her wings, and she rescued me.

Back on Earth, my friends all told me that I was forgiven, and Jeremie decided not to launch a return trip for one simple reason: Brynja was leaving the school.

"Can you believe it? She didn't even say goodbye to me!"


	23. Karen Spills the Beans

**_Karen Spills the Beans_**

**Karen**

_Small Brown's rat was in trouble. After a lecture was delivered to the poor brown, White went with Dark Gold and Strong Bronze to class, and suddenly small rat-like creatures started attacking! Strong Bronze and Dark Gold rushed to the factory while White held the rats off - _

_White and her friends talked about Small Brown's rat, and White left to communicate with the teachers._

I opened my eyes. Then I sat up and tried to figure out what was different about me this time.

"Well, Karen? What's happening this time? I mean aside from our lecturing Odd about Kiwi."

"Well, we're going to have to launch a return trip because, uh…I'm not sure what Xana's attack is this time. It looked like Kiwi, but not quite."

"Well, we'd better go to breakfast."

I pulled myself out of bed and immediately crashed on the floor! "Oh, that's what changed," I said ruefully as I looked back at my legs.

My legs…and the long, white, arrow-tip tail wrapped around them.

**Aelita**

I couldn't help it; I giggled. "Would you like some help getting straightened out?"

"I think you'd better. I'm not sure how to move it yet."

I helped her unwind and asked, "How are you going to hide _that_?"

"Probably by _not_ hiding it. It looks a lot like a belt, doesn't it?"

I shrugged. "As long as it stays, I don't think there'll be any problem."

* * *

Each of us except for Karen voiced a complaint about Kiwi to Odd, and Jeremie told him, "Until Kiwi learns to behave, he has to stay in the factory for two weeks." 

Odd immediately turned to Karen. He tried to grab her hands – still hidden in their sleeves – but she pulled them back. "Karen, couldn't you say something to save my dog?"

"Don't look at me, Odd, I still don't know the little guy very well."

**Ulrich**

Yumi, Karen, and I were all in Penchak Silat class listening to Jim talk.

Karen leaned over and whispered to me, "Does he understand anything he's saying?"

"Probably not."

What made this irritating was that Sissi was there.

We sparred for a little bit – I don't know where Karen was, but I was with Yumi – when Yumi's cell phone went off. There was an activated tower! I told Jim that there was an emergency and Yumi, Karen and I ran out of the gym.

Standing there was Kiwi 2! Karen asked, "What's that?" She hadn't seen the little robot.

"Kiwi 2. Jeremie built him. If he's letting _himself_ out to do his business then Jeremie must have done an upgrade on him."

Karen suddenly said, "No, Ulrich, that's _Xana's_ upgrade! So this is what my dream meant: robot dogs!"

I told them, "You girls get to the factory; I'll draw him off."

Then suddenly, the thing flickered and there were two of them! "Uh-oh." Yumi hit one and we ran back into the gym, but the other one got in, and it bit Johnny and Milly before it could get smashed.

Yumi explained everything to Jim, and we made a plan to get out through the air duct. Suddenly, as Yumi removed the cover to the air duct, Karen spoke up. "I'm not sure I can fit through there."

"What are you talking about? You're about the same size as Yumi!"

She sighed. "You two go in first. That way, if I can't fit, I'm not blocking it for the rest of you."

I shook my head. "Okay, but I'll want an explanation on the other side."

We crawled through the duct, and I heard Karen bang her head on the ceiling. Maybe she couldn't get through with that sweater of hers. But why didn't she just take it off?

We dropped into the boiler room and I looked up. There was Karen, and she landed hard.

Suddenly, in came a bunch of Kiwi 2's! I told Yumi and Karen, "Run! I'll hold them off!"

Karen decided to argue with me, pulling off her sweatshirt. "You're not facing them alone, mister!"

Then I stared: Karen had wings!

She started taking on all the Kiwi robots by herself while I ran after Yumi. I had decided that she could take care of herself.

**Karen**

I was amazed at what an effective weapon my tail was, once I got the hang of using it. A lot of the dogs were going down to my wings and claws, but I couldn't stop long enough to get my shoes off. I felt like I was in a dance of death for hours!

Finally, all the dogs started disappearing. I guessed that we were going to have a return trip pretty quickly.

"_Return to the past now._"

* * *

All of us were in Odd's room, talking about what happened. Odd declared Kiwi a hero, and Ulrich said that Kiwi could stay. 

Suddenly, Yumi asked, "Hey, was it just me, or did Karen have wings?"

I tensed as Ulrich agreed, "I saw them, too. What's up with that?"

I sighed. "That was Xana's doing. I'm slowly turning into a dragon, bit by bit, overnight. If I had to make an estimate, I'll be a full dragon in two more days."

Jeremie scolded me. "I wish you'd let me try to make an antivirus."

I walked out; I didn't want to hear Odd ask what they were talking about. Besides, I had an arrangement to make; one that my friends would have kittens over if they knew about it. I was going to tell the teachers about Lyoko.

* * *

The teacher's meeting I called was underway. All that was left was to tell them what was going on. 

"Listen to me; everything that I'm going to say is true. There is an abandoned factory with secret passages nearby that has a powerful supercomputer inside, and that computer is home to a virtual world named Lyoko. Humans can go to it through a process called virtualization, and there is a sentinent virus named Xana who is threatening Earth. He has captured Aelita's father, and William. The boy that has been coming to school and acting stupid isn't the real William; it's a clone that Jeremie made to buy us some time to get him back. We - Jeremie, Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, Aelita, and I - we all need help to accomplish our mission, which is to destroy Xana and rematerialize Aelita's father and William. I speak for all of my friends when I say that we must be allowed to leave class when a Xana attack is discovered, and we must be given extensions on our assignments when this happens. Nothing can change the fact that we must go; in fact, I am stressing the fact that we must go to stop this chaos." I was stretching the point when I said that I was speaking for all my friends.

Jim suddenly decided to speak. "Baloney! This is just a big story to get out of school!"

I snarled. "Baloney? _Baloney?!_" I pulled off my sweatshirt and shirt and kicked off my shoes, revealing everything about me that had become draconic. "Is _this_ baloney? _Is_ this? Xana did this to me, and it won't stop until he is destroyed! In just two days, I'll be a complete dragon! Is _that_ baloney?"

There was complete silence in the room. I had never lost my temper before.

Then Mr. Delmas held his hand out. "I believe you. Indeed, with such vivid proof before me, I'd be a fool _not_ to believe it. But you must tell me one thing: what should I tell the other students?"

"Whatever you want, sir, as long as you don't include me. My appearance will certainly cause unnecessary panic, and it isn't permanent so there's no point in telling them. Say that I've caught a fever if you must, but I can't come into the classrooms once I'm full dragon."

We shook hands on the matter and he said, "Very well. I agree to your terms."

I smiled. But inwardly, I was wondering what Jeremie's reaction would be to this.

Oh, well. What's done is done, and now the teachers wouldn't miss me when I disappeared.


	24. William's Message

_**William's Message**_

**Karen**

_White, Dark Gold, Pink-Gold, Kind Bronze, and Strong Bronze were all in Kind Bronze's cavelet talking when Small Brown came barging in screaming. He finally managed to talk Dark Gold into taking his little rat somewhere and she left with it. Later, they went to the factory and...blue._

_Afterwards, White flew back to her cavelet with Pink-Gold._

I opened my eyes. "Odd's going to be frantic about his dog. He'll beg Yumi for something and she finally agrees. We're all going to Lyoko for…something. I'm not sure what."

"Okay, but how's your transformation going?"

"I…" I looked briefly under my shirt, "think the only thing that changed last night was a bunch of new scales. But tomorrow…"

"What are we going to do about you when you become a full dragon?"

Well, I had to tell her eventually. "They already know. The teachers and the principal, I mean. I told them yesterday."

"_What?!_"

I stood up and found something else: my legs had altered position a little. I tipped forwards so my hands hit the floor and complained, "Oh, great, now I'm walking like Kiwi!"

**Yumi**

We all met up in Jeremie's room. Odd was panicking about Kiwi being found in a surprise inspection. "Yumi, you don't have class for another hour, could you…"

"Out of the question, Odd. My dad can't stand pets."

"Pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty please?"

"Oh, all right. You win this time."

"Thank you! Nothing can stop me from kissing you!"

I put my hand on his mouth. "_I_ can."

I zipped Kiwi into my backpack and picked it up around the time Jim and Mr. Delmas opened the door. "Hello, sir. I've got to get to class."

As I walked off, I heard Jim ask Karen about any changes. Huh?

**Jeremie**

Jim asked, "So how's everything going, Karen? Anything new in your transformation?"

As I stared, Karen calmly answered, "Let's just say I can now officially get along without a shirt if I wanted, and I've become more comfortable walking on all fours."

"Any alerts on that virus of yours?"

I answered. "Uh…no, but something might turn up later."

"That's great! Well, if you need to run off for anything, just let your current teacher know, and be sure to tell Ishiyama that, too."

After they left, I looked at Karen. "What was _that_ about?"

Aelita answered. "Didn't I tell you? Karen called up a teacher's meeting yesterday and told them all what was happening: about Lyoko, Xana, William, my father, _and_ her transformation!"

Odd screamed, "_What?!_"

Karen snapped, "Well, it _does_ make our job a whole lot simpler, doesn't it? Now we're not hiding anything, and we'll get free passes whenever we need them!"

"Well…that's true…" I admitted, "but you still should have told us first."

"Did we have this discussion with Aelita about _her_ telling _me_ about this?"

That set off a laugh, anyway. Even I thought it was funny how we were repeating a situation.

* * *

Later, when we met up with Yumi, we filled her in on Karen's little scheme, and she said, "That's great! It means I'll finally be able to retake an exam after a Xana attack!"

Then the supercomputer picked up a replica on its scan. "You all know what _that_ means…"

Karen answered. "Exploration time!"

**Ulrich**

Odd was still worried about his dog when we arrived on Lyoko. We boarded the Skid and took off.

Yumi and I both guessed different sectors that Xana might have replicated, but it turned out that we were all wrong.

"**_Welcome to a replica of Sector Five_**," Aelita said.

* * *

We docked at a tower and Jeremie asked, "Odd and Yumi, would you like to go this time?"

"_**Aye, aye, Captain Einstein!**_"

"Would you give the bad jokes a rest, Private? Aelita, Ulrich and Karen – "

" – Stay and guard the Skid, I know."

"Right. I'm activating the tower for our own use." After he activated it, he asked, "Ready for teleportation?"

Yumi answered. "_**Just say the word.**_"

Apparently, the supercomputer was on a satellite!

* * *

We waited outside the Skid for a while. I was wondering what Xana was doing. Then a glowing red ring appeared around the Skid! Jeremie told us, "Just like on Lyoko before, you have to deactivate a key to stop the mechanism. Any volunteers?"

"I'm the fastest. I'll go."

After tearing around the place, I finally found the key. I got smashed about the time I hit the key. When the scanner opened, I said, "Now that's what I call being really pressed for time."

**Odd**

After dodging some flying spike-balls and sending them off into space, we broke some water pipes and let that destroy the supercomputer. Then we were ready to go home.

**Karen**

Aelita and I wound up fighting William all by ourselves. Mostly Aelita threw Energy Fields at him, but soon she was knocked flat. Then I dive-bombed in. The look on his face was amazing. I destroyed his sword and stood on all fours, facing him. He just stared at me. Then he started acting like he had a headache. I had formed a fireball in my claw, but I didn't know if I should throw it. Finally, he looked at me again.

"K-Karen?" I cancelled my fireball and stared. Was he free? "What-what have I done to you? What did Xana make me do?"

I shook my head. "I'd rather not talk about it."

He smiled (I _did_ sound rather like Jim right then), and then he held his hand towards me. "Karen…I – "

Then Xana took control of him again. His outstretched hand threw a shadow at me. If it wasn't for Odd and Yumi, I probably wouldn't have survived that encounter.

William jumped off the platform and we all left in the Skid.

As the replica exploded behind us, Yumi asked, "_**What's the matter, Karen?**_"

"The _real_ William came back again. I think he tried to tell me something."

Jeremie said, "Well, let's hope that it will happen again so that he can actually tell us."

I remained silent. I was pretty sure I already knew what William had tried to tell me: _"Karen…I love you."_


	25. Karen the Dragon

_**Karen the Dragon**_

**Karen**

_White was led out of her cave by the large brown dragon. Then - _

_Green-Gold and Small Blue were beating up a new dragon, an unusually shaded bronze - _

_White was talking with Kind Bronze._

I opened my eyes and yawned. I wasn't really sleepy; I never was. The yawn was for looks.

"Your teeth are impressive now, Karen." Aelita hadn't left yet. That wasn't surprising, but was she talking about –

I tried to speak. "Aarrh-" No use. My mouth and vocal chords were not suited for human speech! How would I tell her what my dream was about?

Aelita asked, "Now that your head and neck look like one of your pictures, how are we getting you out of the dorm?"

Then there was a loud knock on the door. "Stones! Shayli! Are you two up?"

Aelita answered first. "Yes, Jim." I let out a kind of squawk.

Jim opened the door. "I thought that might be the case. Let's get you two down to breakfast bright and early so that no one sees you."

I nodded. My nod went all the way down my neck, which had grown considerably compared to my original neck.

**Jeremie**

My cousin Patrick was coming to the school. I wasn't very happy about it. See, he had this tendency to take away my friends. Karen's new dragon form was not very enlightening to any of us, either. Now we wouldn't have any Xana-attack warnings unless she could come up with a kind of code.

* * *

We did eventually discover the Xana attack: both Sissi and Herve were possessed! Patrick did his best to take them on while I virtualized all but Karen. She flew in so boldly to assist that I figured there would be a return trip.

Finally, Herve and Sissi stopped attacking. Aelita had deactivated the tower. I ran over to Patrick, who was at the bottom of the stairs. Karen was nosing at him anxiously, so he must have been thrown down. I called the supercomputer. "Guys, you'd better launch a return to the past."

**Karen**

I found myself outside on the school grounds. I decided to stay out here from now on. Or at least, from now until I found out how to fix this problem.

Jeremie came out to talk. "Patrick isn't staying at the school after all."

I shrugged. _Yeah, and you're really happy about _that_, aren't you?_

"Well, now I understand him better. He just wants to be my friend as well. To change the subject, now that you're a dragon, we'll have to work out some kind of code for you to tell us about your dreams."

Suddenly, I froze. _Jeremie?_

"Yeah?"

_I'm not saying anything._ I proved my point by letting out another squawk.

Jeremie turned and stared. "You've become a telepath!"

_Great! That means I can tell you all about my dreams without having to speak!_

"And we still have to figure out how to fix this problem. You realize that, right?"

_Yes._ I did, too. But I wasn't sure I wanted to fix it right away. I felt like there was still something for me to do.


	26. Dragonsong

_**Dragonsong**_

**Karen**

_White was talking to Pink-Gold through the window, and P-G was frantic about something. Later on, White was talking to Dark Gold, and let herself be talked into something. Then that night, they were all at a party and had to leave and...violet - _

_The party was over, with Pink-Gold a big star. White got to witness a very happy picture between Dark Gold and Strong Bronze._

I stretched out my new dragon body outside. Poor Aelita; how would she be able to relax for…whatever she had to do?

Well, her friends would be able to help her. I'm not sure how well _I_ would, though. I lifted my head up to look at her window. Then I reared up and extended my neck. Doing that, I could just barely look through.

_Aelita? Are you awake?_

Aelita opened the window. "Yes, Karen. What's up for today?"

_I think you already know this. You're going to be frantic about something all day. Could you maybe fill me in?_

She sighed. "The Subdigitals concert is tonight. I'm so nervous about it."

_Oh. I get nervous about performances too. I get around it by imagining that there's nobody in the audience except for a few friends._

Aelita smiled. "I could imagine that only the people I've invited are there."

_Who did you invite?_

"I haven't given the tickets to them yet, but I've invited Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and…oh, I forgot you couldn't come."

I sighed. _It's okay. I was only a dragon yesterday._

**Yumi**

I was with Ulrich and Odd near the snack machines. Odd was worried about how he was going to get two tickets for the concert: one for him and one for his new girlfriend.

I suggested, "Why don't you try asking my little brother? He's always got some connections."

"Hiroki! Thanks, Yumi, you're the greatest!" As he was walking away, he paused, looked over his shoulder and added, "Ulrich, you should go out with her."

Ulrich looked at me, blushing, and asked, "We're just good friends, right?"

"Right." I hoped he hadn't noticed that I was blushing, too.

Aelita stopped by, and blew off some of her worries to us. "Just thinking about it gives me butterflies, and I wish I could stop thinking about it. And what's more, I got Karen a ticket to go to the concert, but she can't go, not with the way she looks right now!"

Ulrich groaned. "Why can't she just let Jeremie make her an antivirus?"

I said, "She still doesn't trust him that far, Ulrich. I don't know why. But I've got an idea."

* * *

I went and talked to Karen. "Listen, you still have that humongous sweatshirt, right? And you still fit into all those clothes, right?" 

_Right…_

"Well, if you put that stuff on, and curl your neck up so that it's a bit shorter, I doubt anyone would notice."

_What about my face?_ Karen cocked her head. _My face will draw attention like a magnet!_

"So we'll use a mask. I could ask Hiroki for one of his."

_Wouldn't that look stupid? One of Hiroki's masks being on a teenager, I mean?_

"Nobody will care; they'll all be looking at Aelita. If anyone asks, we could say that you got a serious skin problem that you're embarrassed about."

_With my neck in that position – _

I suddenly felt a misgiving. "Can you do it?"

She twisted her neck around and stood up straight. _It works, but it's dreadfully uncomfortable._

Whew. "It's just for one night. Would you do it for Aelita?"

She looked at me, falling back onto all fours. She looked like she was measuring me for something. _I will…if you do something for me._

I braced myself. "What?"

**Ulrich**

We went to visit Aelita backstage. Karen was with us, dressed up and wearing a mask. Aelita looked very happy to see us, though she did ask where Jeremie was. I said that he was lost in the crowds, and she seemed to accept that.

When we left her to her focusing, I asked, "Yumi, how'd you convince Karen to come along?"

Before Yumi could answer, Odd spotted his girlfriend.

* * *

When we were waiting, Karen suddenly stiffened. "What's up?" 

_Something's wrong._

Right after that, Yumi's cell phone went off. It was Jeremie. "Xana's activated a tower!"

"The Subdigitals just cancelled Aelita's performance, and Karen just said that something was wrong."

"Sounds like Xana. I'll meet you at the factory."

After Yumi hung up, I said, "Let's go find Aelita."

Karen nodded stiffly. _I'll ditch this stuff, since I know there's going to be a return trip._

That was actually a good idea, since we had to fight off the Xanafied Milly and Tamiya. She shed the clothes and the mask, grabbed Odd and Yumi, and flew out after the woman carrying Aelita.

I figured that this was the best plan and took on the media.

**Karen**

Odd gasped, "Karen! I didn't know you could carry both of us!"

_I can't. I'll have to drop one of you two._ Right after I finished that thought, I let go of Yumi. She hit the ground running, while I improved my grip on Odd.

We got there just in time to kick the Xana-possessed lady. I abstained from attacking. After all, the point was to subdue her, not kill her, and my weapons were just not suited for harmless fighting.

Jeremie came in right around then. "Where's Aelita?"

Yumi answered. "She's already on Lyoko."

* * *

We virtualized. All of us did. I was nervous about that, because I wasn't sure my telepathy would work there. 

As it turned out, that wasn't a problem. I could talk on Lyoko! "Hey, Jeremie, my voice is back!"

"That's great, Karen, but you have to rescue Aelita!"

I flew up and around, trying to figure out the best strategy. I spotted William get devirtualized by Yumi's flying fans right after hitting her. My hearing was good enough to hear what they said.

William: "Game's over, Yooyu!"

Yumi: "Same for you, Handsome!"

Now, that's probably not what William said, but that's what I heard, and I thought it was so ridiculous that I laughed. My laugh was still a dragon's roar. Oh well.

Suddenly, watching Aelita, I had it: the one thing that would take Xana off her back. I dove for her. "Aelita!"

She looked up as I destroyed the Manta that was bothering her. "What is it, Karen?"

I landed. "I know how to shake off Xana's insistent pursuit, but you will have to trust me when the time comes!"

Aelita studied me and, finally, nodded.

"Good," I said, and I heaved her up and carried her all the way to the tower.

Jeremie's voice came with welcome words: "Return to the past now."

* * *

While we were at the concert, Jeremie was smiling, so I guess Aelita and he had made up again. While we were listening (it seemed way too loud to me, but my hearing was sharper), Jeremie asked, "What _was_ your idea, Karen?" 

_If we took away the thing that Xana wants most, then there won't be many more Aelita-nappings._

"I'm not sure I get it."

_Jeremie…_ I blew out a careful sigh. _We have to get Franz Hopper out of the computer._

"But Franz Hopper won't come out of the Digital Sea unless Aelita's –"

I looked at him.

"Oh, man. You've got to be kidding!"

_I am dead serious._

"But I don't have a program ready!"

_You don't have to. I have an idea. Don't worry; we don't have to do it tonight. It can be tomorrow after school._

* * *

We exited the building, and Aelita met up with us again. "Finally I managed to shake off those two." 'Those two' being Milly and Tamiya, no doubt. 

Jeremie was very happy to see her. It made me smile.

Ulrich looked at Yumi and asked, "By the way, you never did answer my question last time around."

Yumi decided to play dumb. "Uh…what question?" She knew exactly what question; she was blushing.

"How'd you get Karen to come?"

"Um…" She looked at me. I nodded.

"She, uh, kind of made me promise to do something after the concert was over. And it was about you."

Ulrich's eyebrows went up. "What?"

One more hesitation and I lost patience. _YUMI!!!_

Yumi clasped her head. "Karen! Not so loud!"

I glared at her through the mask.

She sighed, and right in front of everybody, she caught Ulrich's head with both hands and kissed him on the lips.

I counted the seconds to myself, enjoying the moment. _One…two…three…she must really like him._

She pulled back again, and they were both a gorgeous shade of red. Ulrich said just one word: "Oh."

_Yeah. Oh._ Personally, I didn't know which was sweeter: that she held the kiss for so long, or that Sissi happened to come out of the theater right at that moment.


	27. Franz Hopper's Free!

_**Franz Hopper's Free!**_

**Karen**

_White and Pink-Gold flew towards the school caves, and White waited outside. Then they flew to the factory and...blue._

_Later, they were talking with the principal and Big Brown, and another large bronze was in the room._

I stretched out on the grass below the dorm windows. This would be interesting. I guessed that the new bronze dragon meant my little idea worked?

"How's it going, Karen?" I looked up. Aelita had poked her head out the window.

_Just fine. My idea of bringing your father out of the computer will work._

Aelita looked extremely happy after that.

* * *

I flew above her head, high enough to be out of sight, as she went to her first class. Aelita called up, "You know, Karen: that was a very special treat last night."

_You mean the kiss?_ I grinned. _Yeah, I figured that Yumi might as well ditch her pride and admit her love for Ulrich._

Aelita suddenly stopped. I circled around. _What is it?_

"Karen…do you love William?"

I stopped flapping and set up a small glide. _What brought _that _up?_

"Just…you seemed very preoccupied after we destroyed the supercomputer on the space station, when you said that William had tried to say something."

_Well, I won't deny that I liked that kiss._ Was my dragon blushing? _Could_ it blush? _But actually _loving _him? I don't know._

* * *

Well, after school we all went to the factory. Jeremie asked, "How many warriors do you think we'll need on this trip, Karen?"

_If Xana was going to leave us alone, I'd say just Aelita and me. But since we'll be doing exactly what Xana_ wants _us to do in part, we'd better bring along at least two others._

Odd asked, "So what _will_ you be doing?"

I looked at him. _Why don't you come along and find out?_

Jeremie took mercy on him. "Karen's going to bring Franz Hopper out of the computer. The only way to do that is to get him out of the Digital Sea, and the only way to do _that_ is to knock Aelita in."

Ulrich's eyes widened. "You're going along with this, Aelita?"

"I trust Karen. And I trust my father."

"Then I'm going."

"So am I," Odd chimed in.

"All right, you guys, get down to the scanner room."

* * *

We appeared on Lyoko in the Ice Sector, practically right on the edge. I straightened up and looked around. It was all clear…for now.

"All right, Aelita. You realize it must seem like an accident, right?"

She nodded.

"Good." And with that, I snapped my wing open, knocking her right off the platform. She hit the Digital Sea and I waited.

After about a minute, the glowing ball that was Franz Hopper came up. And that's when the trouble began. William came up with two Mantas, which started shooting at the ball!

Franz floated over to us and dropped Aelita off. I yelled, "Odd, keep them busy! Ulrich, parry those shots!" Then I took off and flew for the ball.

I could hear my friends complying with my orders. I landed squarely on top of the ball and thought as hard as I could, not sure if he could hear me, _Franz, you have to trust me._

And then I…I guess "pushed" was the only way to describe it. I pushed some of my strength into the ball, focusing on all the images of Franz Hopper that I had seen, focusing on the scanner opening and Aelita's father stepping out.

I didn't have to do that very long before suddenly Franz Hopper disappeared from below me simultaneously with the two Mantas exploding! I hit the ground hard and let out some kind of snarl.

Odd looked up. "Jeremie, did it work?"

Silence for a moment. Then, "Yes, Odd! Franz Hopper is safe on Earth!"

William yelled, "No!" And then he made short work of Odd and Aelita. Ulrich started for me, but William's sword tore through him before he reached me. I started flying, yelling out, "Jeremie, bring me in!"

* * *

We all rested from our exertions in the principal's office. Mr. Delmas offered for Franz Hopper to stay with him and he accepted. Then Jim, who was with us at the time, asked, "So is that it, Karen?"

I knew he wouldn't hear my telepathy, so I looked at Aelita. _Tell him that we still have to rescue William and destroy Xana._

Aelita looked at them and said, "Xana is still a threat, sir, and he still has William. Until Xana's destroyed and William's back, we must fight."

Franz Hopper rubbed my head. I guess he was thanking me for getting him out of there. I didn't say it, but I figured I knew how to rescue William and destroy Xana.

Jeremie commented as we left, "I thought that would fix your problem, Karen."

I answered, _That didn't take much power. My problem is some kind of a power overload, and I didn't get much of it out._

"So…" Odd asked, "how do we get the _rest_ of the power out?"

I grinned. _By destroying Xana and rescuing William._


	28. Do or Die, part 1

_**Do Or Die, part 1**_

**Karen**

_White's friends flew through their classes, and afterwards, practically every teacher started trying to kill them! Kind Bronze, Pink-Gold, Small Brown and White went to the factory and…blue. Then – black._

My eyes snapped open and I almost howled in fright. What was _that_? Had I just dreamed of my death?

* * *

I stayed on the roof of the cafeteria all through my friends' classes. I had already told them that there was going to be a Xana attack involving every teacher getting possessed and that Ulrich and Yumi were going to hold them off, but I hadn't told them of the "black." How could I?**Yumi**

Karen seemed extremely uptight during lunch. It was probably nearing the teacher-possession time. Then, sure enough, Jim nearly caught us! Ulrich and I started using our Penchak Silat to hold them off while the rest of the Lyoko warriors ran to the factory.

"Ulrich, did Karen seem kind of…nervous?" I asked.

"Yeah," Ulrich answered while he dodged Mrs. Hertz. "What do you think will happen on Lyoko?"

**Odd**

We got to the factory in record time, and I was riding on Karen's back. We all dropped into the Forest Sector and I looked at Karen. "What's wrong, Karen? You look like you're expecting the Scyphozoa or something."

"Actually, I'm expecting William." Karen's good; right after she said that, William rode up on a Tarantula. He had an entire seafood army behind him!

Karen yelled, "You people take on the others," as she took off flying, "William's mine!"

I shrugged and lunged in, firing off arrows. Aelita flew next to me, firing off her Energy Fields. But no matter how many we destroyed, more took their places!

"This is starting to get ridiculous! How many of these guys are there?"

Suddenly, Jeremie's voice came from above. "Karen, what are you doing?"

Her answer was in a roar. Had her voice left in favor of a dragon's?

Right after that, Aelita and I were devirtualized at the same time!

The scanners opened, and Aelita asked, "Now what, Jeremie?"

"Now…" he sighed, "we trust Karen."

**Karen**

My voice was gone. I couldn't explain it, it was just…gone. I blasted away William's ride and got him smoke-chasing me. Then when he returned to his human form again, I swiveled around and destroyed his sword, flipped through the air and pinned him flat. My feet were somehow gripping his arms, and my tail was around his waist, so there was no way he could escape even if he went smokey.

Xana spoke through William. "Now what, Karen? Are you going to destroy me?"

I growled at him.

"He really loves you, you know. Destroy me, and you lose him. Do you want that?"

Playing off my feelings. Very funny, Xana. Unfortunately for you, that won't work. I formed a fireball in my left hand and an ice ball in my right.

Xana smirked. "You're giving me a choice between immediate destruction or freezing?"

I shook my head and set the two together. The result was a pulsing yellow ball of light between my claws that was about as big as my head. I was imagining Xana leaving William in a black specter, William returning to Earth, all the monsters disappearing, and Xana taking on the form of…a dragon. That was the only thing I could imagine myself handling. This stunt wouldn't take a whole lot of power, any more than rescuing Franz Hopper would. It was going to be defeating Xana that would take the most power.

William's eyes got big when he saw that ball. He didn't know what it would do any more than I did. I only knew what I hoped it would do. I set the ball against his chest and pushed. He yelled out in pain and black smoke poured out in front of me from between my claws. All the monsters vanished, and so did William. I looked up as the smoke swirled and took on the form of a shadowy dragon with red eyes and a glowing red eye mark on its head.

It roared at me in frustration and anger. This was not what he wanted, I guess. I had restrained him to a corporal envelope, and he could not create any more monsters or run away. This was a do-or-die moment for both of us.


	29. Do or Die, part 2

_**Do or Die, part 2**_

**Karen**

I growled at Xana. I knew that my energy stunt would only take out a chunk of his life points at best, so I had to save it.

Xana, on the other hand, had no such inhibitors, and fired a blast of shadows from his mouth at me!

I took off straight up. One advantage I had over him: I could fly, but he was too big to fly in the Forest Sector, for all that his wings were of the right proportions to his body. I just kept diving and swooping, scratching him whenever and wherever I could. He reacted stronger whenever I hit his wings, so I did that mostly. I would throw fireballs, but they didn't do much. My ice balls did more damage, and hindered his movements.

After about five minutes, one of his wings caught me full on in the stomach. I flew back and crashed into a tree, then fell and landed on a branch.

Jeremie's voice came from above. "Karen! You only have fifty life points left! With his strength, you can't let him hit you again!"

I growled as I struggled up to my feet on the branch. Well, now I had no other option. I formed one of my normal ice balls in my right hand, set my left hand on top of it, and pulled up, pushing some more power into it. As I expected, the ball got bigger. When it got about the size of my head, I stopped, took flight again, and took the ice ball in my feet. While I was flying, chased by Xana's shadow blast, I did the same thing on my left hand with my fireball. I grabbed a different branch with my tail, swung upside-down while I grabbed my ice ball from my feet, and using my momentum I spiraled back onto the branch and shoved my two balls together. My focus, the thing I wanted this ball to do, was obvious: destroy Xana, stop his attack, and make sure that he could never return in any shape or form. This was taking all the energy I had. I wasn't sure I could fly again…but fly I must, to slam this thing where it needed to go.

Xana roared. This time, I actually heard words in it: "_**You are defeated, Karen!**_"

I leaped from my branch, roaring back, "_I'm taking you with me, Xana!_"

His next energy blast hit me, but my claws shoved the energy ball squarely on his glowing red eye.

And I remembered nothing more.

**William**

I fell from the scanner and looked at my hands in disbelief. Was I really free? I ran up to the lab and asked, "What happened?"

Jeremie answered. "Karen made sure that Xana couldn't create any more monsters, and she tied him to a corporal envelope, so he can't attack as a specter."

I tried to match this with his tone. "Um…this is good, right?"

Aelita answered that one. "It would be, but the corporal envelope she chose to bind him to, was a dragon. The dragons of her imagination are fully capable of fighting and killing."

I watched, worried, as the scale for Xana-dragon's life points scrolled downwards, slowly but evenly. Every now and again, we'd hear a roar of anger.

Then, when Xana was down about half, suddenly Karen's life points dropped and I heard a squawk of pain and anger.

Jeremie yelled into his speaker, "Karen! You have only fifty life points left! With his strength, you can't let him hit you again!"

I tensed. This wasn't good. I got _really_ tense when a bunch of alarms started popping up on Jeremie's screen.

Jeremie said, sounding frantic, "Karen's doing it again! She's making that energy surge that freed William!"

"You mean that glowing yellow ball?" I asked.

"Yes. That attack is actually very unstable. Only one alarm came up for your rescue, though. This one is much bigger!"

Xana roared again, and this time I could make out words: "**You are defeated, Karen!**"

Karen answered with a roar of her own, but I still heard words from it: "_I'm taking you with me, Xana!_"

Just a moment later, two roars of pain came to our ears. And one was definitely Karen's. All at once, all the alarms disappeared, and so did the image of Xana. Karen's picture lost all its color at the same time, though. I ran down to the scanner room again, vaguely hearing Jeremie answer a phone call.

There was Karen, laying on the floor right outside the scanner. She was wearing a bikini for some reason. I picked her up and carried her to the elevator. As I was going up, I noticed some scaled gloves on her hands, exactly the same color as her hair.

I came into the lab, and Odd immediately said, "So she's human again?"

"Huh?"

Aelita filled me in. "The virus that Xana gave her through you was slowly turning her into a dragon. She had gone to Lyoko as a full dragon."

I looked at her again. Had she really gone through all that? Now she felt cold. Really cold. And she hadn't tried to move since before I got there.

Aelita touched Karen's chest with a worried face.

I asked, "Is she…dead?"


	30. Everything's Finally Perfect

_**Everything's Finally Perfect**_

**Karen**

I opened my eyes. My head felt bizarre. I had never felt so much like I shouldn't have to move. But…something was wrong. Something happened that shouldn't have. Or something _didn't_ happen that _should_ have. How was _I_ supposed to know?

I looked around. Was I in the infirmary? How did I get here? I slowly pushed up to a reclined position and looked at my hands. They actually were _hands_, not dragon claws. Then I remembered what happened. I had defeated Xana, all by myself. That turned me back into a human. And I'm still alive? So what did the blackness at the end of my dream mean?

Wait…I hadn't had any dream just now. Whether I was asleep or unconscious, I _always_ had my future-predicting dragon dreams. And yet I didn't have one before waking up this time. _That_ was what didn't happen: my dragon dream!

"So you're awake now, are you? What did you dream?" I looked again at the person whose presence next to me I hadn't registered in my mind until then: William.

I looked down at my chest. Someone had gotten me into actual clothes while I was asleep. I looked up again and answered, "Nothing. My dreams are gone. How long was I out?"

He grinned. "About two days." Then his grin vanished. "We were all worried about you. I was positive you were dead, and Aelita could only barely find a heartbeat."

"I thought I would wake up dead."

That got him to laugh. "How would that even work?"

I shrugged. Then I set my hand to my head. "What's wrong with me? I feel so…"

"Sleepy? Is that it?"

I stared at him. I had never felt even the slightest bit sleepy in my life. Was that it? "Probably. I've always woken up all at once." Then I grinned sheepishly. "Did Principal Delmas have anything to say about me?"

He sighed dramatically. "He said that whenever you came out, you would have to spend four hours studying what you couldn't study as a dragon. Oh, and that reminds me:" he reached into a drawer next to me and pulled out two sparkling white objects, "you had these on when I found you. I think they're all that's left of your dragon form."

I took them from him and studied them. They were perfect white dragon-skin gloves. I looked at him and smiled. "Thanks. I was hoping I would have a way to remember the time I was a dragon. It _was_ fun, if you leave out the part where I couldn't socialize."

He grinned again. "You'll have to catch up on the news outside this place. Everyone misses you – why didn't you _tell_ me you're the most popular girl in the school now?"

I grinned back. "You were under Xana's control the whole time, how _could_ I tell you? So, is Sissi still feeling sore about that?"

"No, actually she's part of our group now."

I stared. "Who asked her?"

"Odd."

"And she _accepted_?"

He shrugged. "Apparently she's always liked him and didn't want to admit it. Speaking of people liking each other," he grinned at me yet again, "had you set up what's happening between Ulrich and Yumi, by any chance?"

I laughed. "I couldn't stand the way those two were acting, so I threw a challenge at Yumi, and they've been together ever since."

William looked like he was about to say something else, but the nurse looked in right then. "You need to get to your next class, William, and Karen needs to rest."

He sighed. "Okay." He got up and started to leave. Then he came back and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips. "Get your strength back soon, Karen. I'll see you after school."

When he left, all I could do was stare after him. He hadn't commented on the fact that my dreams were gone, but it didn't seem to matter to him. And then there was that kiss. I settled back again and sighed happily. Well, now surprises, good friends, and a boyfriend were in my life. Everything was finally perfect.


End file.
